Starting with the first reason, the range of terms now offered mean that many people are able to pick the exact label that matches their experience of gender, rather than feeling forced into a box which doesn’t fit them. Second it means that everybody can see that the model of gender which this huge social networking service adopts is one of diversity rather than dichotomy. Why is this important? Two reasons: First it means that those who don’t experience their gender as ‘male’ or ‘female’ can feel both visible and included, and perhaps this paves the way to further social inclusion as other organisations and bodies follow Facebook’s example. The new options suggest that this is far too limiting and that there are actually over 50 different possible gender categories, and presumably more. The previous options – like most depictions of gender in western cultures – suggested that everybody could be captured under one of two genders: either you are ‘male’ or you are ‘female’. The main, extremely important, thing that the move to a range of gender options does is to demonstrate to people that gender is not dichotomous. If you want to know how to go about changing your own Facebook gender I’ve included a brief guide at the end of this post.

Instead it acknowledges the complexity of the situation and the fact that something can simultaneously expand understanding in some ways and constrain it in others. Reframing the question to what is opened up and closed down gets away from polarised ideas of right and wrong, good and bad. It changed its gender option so that, instead of choosing from ‘male’ and ‘female’, users could pick from a range of over 50 gender terms (listed at the end of this post), as well as choosing to be referred to as ‘they’ if they didn’t want a gendered pronoun (‘he’ or ‘she’).Īs usual, rather than getting into whether this is a good move or a bad move by Facebook, I am going to ask a different couple of questions which I think are more helpful: What does this change open up, and what does it close down? As with most shifts, what Facebook has done achieves something which is important and useful, but in other ways it is problematic and limited. Facebook chose February 14 th 2014 to do one of the most exciting things that has happened in the area of gender and social media for a long time. This year, however, I thought I could rest up a bit on February 14 th given that I said everything I wanted to say about the celebration of romantic love last Valentine. February is a pretty busy time for somebody who writes about sex, gender and relationships what with the coinciding of LGBT history month and Valentine’s Day.

Facebook 51 genders