for the sword and the stone
Well, and here I thought we could round out an utterly shitty year without at least LJ pulling something epically failtastic.
Seen via grrliz: LiveJournal wants to force all new users to choose between "male" and "female" for their gender, providing no other option at all.
(ETA: LJ: *backpedals*)
Currently, there is an "unspecified" gender option, which, while not the greatest thing in the world (since it simply obscures the gender field instead of letting people choose a gender identity they're comfortable with that isn't either 'male' or 'female', even if it were merely 'other') is better than no choice at all.
Gender identity is not as simple as "if you've got a penis, you're male, and if you haven't got one, you're female" (or any other boneheaded variation on distinguishing gender based on primary sexual characteristics). If you've been in LJ fandom for five minutes, you probably know this already. If you have never been exposed to this concept, you have been now. You can start reading up on it at Wikipedia if you're curious. A forced choice between 'male' and 'female' is offensive to pretty much anyone who does not identify as either. This is an online social community, not a fucking biology lab.
LJ does this to pander to advertisers. Obviously. In response, as suggested in the post I've linked above, I've changed my gender field to (Unspecified) and I hope you will too. And if they don't revise this idiotic policy and take away the ability to stay "Unspecified", I'll deliberately set my gender to the opposite of my real one, because seriously, FUCK that noise.
ETA: Please spread the word about this! Every little bit helps. ♥
Seen via grrliz: LiveJournal wants to force all new users to choose between "male" and "female" for their gender, providing no other option at all.
(ETA: LJ: *backpedals*)
Currently, there is an "unspecified" gender option, which, while not the greatest thing in the world (since it simply obscures the gender field instead of letting people choose a gender identity they're comfortable with that isn't either 'male' or 'female', even if it were merely 'other') is better than no choice at all.
Gender identity is not as simple as "if you've got a penis, you're male, and if you haven't got one, you're female" (or any other boneheaded variation on distinguishing gender based on primary sexual characteristics). If you've been in LJ fandom for five minutes, you probably know this already. If you have never been exposed to this concept, you have been now. You can start reading up on it at Wikipedia if you're curious. A forced choice between 'male' and 'female' is offensive to pretty much anyone who does not identify as either. This is an online social community, not a fucking biology lab.
LJ does this to pander to advertisers. Obviously. In response, as suggested in the post I've linked above, I've changed my gender field to (Unspecified) and I hope you will too. And if they don't revise this idiotic policy and take away the ability to stay "Unspecified", I'll deliberately set my gender to the opposite of my real one, because seriously, FUCK that noise.
ETA: Please spread the word about this! Every little bit helps. ♥