When Facebook added 50 new pronoun options for users to choose from, supporters of gender diversity were thrilled. However, many non-binary identifying individuals are still facing issues with the change.
“Many of my trans friends are worried that the new option will be abused by cis gender folk as a joke,” Andres Novoa, a sophomore, said.
Taylor Alexander, president of the Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity at Georgia State, said watching their Facebook friends use the new options for fun instead of for identifying their true gender identities irritating.
“Trans people don’t have the privilege of making up their own identity like cis people. We can barely be our own identity,” they said.
One of the individuals on Alexander’s Facebook identified himself as a gender-fluid cisgender man. This would be an oxymoron according to Taylor because to be gender fluid and cisgender are opposites. A gender-fluid person does not always identify their gender with their biological one, while a cisgender person does.
Alexander changed their identity to agender when the new options were made available. They previously identified as two-spirit, an identity used solely by Native Americans for individuals who have two spirits with different genders within them.
Alexander said that involving more transgender individuals in conversations about gender diversity is an important step in bringing common respect for people and their pronouns and identities in society. While people still refer to them by ‘he’ on accident at times, Alexander said it’s okay to slip up.
“It will take a bunch of respect and practice,” they said.
Alexander also explained that the identity “neutrois” is different from “agender” because an agender person can still identify as masculine or feminine while a neutrois person has no gender at all and identifies as neither masculine nor feminine.
Individuals who identify with more than one identity faced issues as well. Facebook currently has no option to choose both male and female as an option. Instead, users are given the option to choose one of 50 gender options. When changing one’s preferred gender, users select from the options male, female or custom. When one chooses custom, the option appears to type in one’s preferred identity.
One can also choose their preferred pronouns. The options are her, his, or them. Options such as “xe” or “zhe,” pronouns often used for gender-neutral individuals, are currently unavailable.
Some students felt Facebook’s new gender options would help inform the public about gender diversity.
“I think a lot of people don’t even know there’s more than two genders. Adding those gender options sends awareness,” freshman Blair LeBlanc said. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction.”
Other students felt this was an example of the current generation’s movement to acceptance.
“Though stereotypes would consider them self-entitled and narcissistic, Generation Y are the impetus of the subsidence of gender roles in society. We, the millennials, should congratulate ourselves for the progressive action taking place simply as a result of one of our most complimentary traits that is so often looked over by our elders: acceptance,” Camille Stoner, a junior, said.
Yet other students felt Facebook was simply seeking attention.
“I think Facebook is just trying to cause controversy. They just want their name out there. They’re kind of just trying to draw attention to themselves so they can get more users,” Javiar Gee, a graduate student, said.
Alexander said that while Facebook has added multiple gender options, the process of people using them and respecting them in real life is still far off.
“We have the utensils to do something but it’s the application that’s the issue,” they said.
Facebook compared to other social networking sites
When signing up for Twitter, another popular social networking site, gender is not an option. However, unlike Facebook, Twitter does not utilize gender for notifications such as “Wish him/her/them a happy birthday.”
Instagram, an application smart phone users upload pictures to, has only two gender options: male and female. However, like Twitter, gender is not utilized for notifications. Instead, usernames are used to tell users what their followers are liking and uploading.
Out of all the popular social networking sites, Alexander felt that Tumblr was the most lgbtqiq friendly. Tumblr is a blogging website that, like Twitter, does not ask for a gender preference when users sign up. Alexander said that they learned about the lgbtqiq community a great deal from using Tumblr when trying to identify themselves.
