Want to see a Waldo get skewered?
BIG HONKING NOTE: THIS IS NOT ME SUPPORTING WHAT LJ IS WAS (b/c apparently they aren't doing it now after all) DOING. LJ has a tendency to do stupid shit and I've stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt. THIS IS ME GOING, WTF... WHAT DID I MISS???
So apparently I fail at 'being gay'.
I'm watching the latest LJ kerfluffle and mostly... I'm confused. And I realize some of you 'have nothing to say to me' if I don't get the problem, and that's fine... you don't have to talk to me, but... I Don't Get It.
So here's where I'm at: I am quietly (due to issues in my profession) bisexual. I consider myself aware of GLTB issues and and have done some advocacy work, but I can't say that it's become my second job or anything. I tend to think, though, that I know what's going on in the GLTB world.
Now, LJ wants you to pick a 'binary' gender for your account. I have not seen anything where they state that they will *know* if you outright lie to them. I have not seen anything that says you have to prove that your chromosomes match the gender that you present to the world. The purpose of this, we seem to think, is that they want to bombard you with ads that might (or might not) be more relevant to your gender.
What I'm seeing all over my LJ is that there is apparently a percentage of people who do not claim to identify as being... gendered. At all? Is that what I'm supposed to take away from this?
Because what I understand about being transgendered is that you are born with chromosomes that say "you are THIS gender", but you are emotionally and psychologically sure that you should actually be THAT gender. Yes? Now granted, I only know a few transgendered people, but none of you (since those of you I do know are on my f'list) has ever said to me, for example, "I was born male, but I'd prefer to be somewhere in between." It's always been, "I was born a this, but I'm more comfortable living as a that."
... so why not tell LJ that you are the gender you are comfortable living in?
I see people going, "OMG! What other binary choice will we have to make? Race? Religion? Other factor that is generally regarded as having a range of choices?" And I just don't get the extrapolation. (Again, not defending LJ, just not getting it...) We are living in a world where gender is a binary choice. When you go to McDonald's and need to wash your hands, you have to go into either the men's room or the ladies' room. Your driver's license (at least in the US) has to list you as one or the other.
So, for like, the third time, I'm not defending LJ. They do wacky shit that leads to more wacky shit. So, yeah... WTF LJ? But even with a very diverse f'list and some RL friends who are open with me regarding their sexuality and gender (and I hesitate to use this word, but can't think of a better one right now) issues, I'm still baffled by the people who are so *very very* up in arms over this.
Is it just that I've never met anyone who really, really doesn't consider them to have a gender and now these people are being marginalized? Is there a bigger security/privacy issue that could come up if people were to know my gender? The gender a person presents to the world, even if it isn't aligned with their genes?
So I'm leaving this post unlocked and I'll even activiate anonymous comments (if I can figure out how, and only for as long as people are civil), because obviously somewhere along the line, I failed to be introduced to the massive problem everyone else sees with this new weirdness from LJ.
If you're really uncomfortable with the fact that I'm so clueless that you want to remove me from your reading list/f'list/whatever we're calling it this week, go ahead, but I'm seriously a more than a little baffled by the amount of homg!rage that this is engendering. I could understand a little better if it was just a case of "Screwy LJ wants more of my personal information than I want to give them," but this doesn't seem to be that. It's more about the removal of the 'other' option, because that seems to be leaving a segment of the population without an honest choice, and that... perplexes me.
ETA: So what I'm seeing in the comments (and I'll get back and answer you all in just a second...) is that there *is* a group of people for whom this is a problem because they do NOT see themselves as having a gender. It's not just that their brain and their chromosomes can't *agree* on a gender, it's that regardless of chromosomes, they feel neither male or female. Yes? Because, like I've said, I've met transmen and transwomen, but I have not encountered someone who has told me they are 'none of the above'. So this, apparently, is just a case of me not having exposure to this group of people to the extent that I really didn't know that they existed. Which is where my confusion stemmed from. Thanks for the information, this does make things somewhat clearer for me.
So apparently I fail at 'being gay'.
I'm watching the latest LJ kerfluffle and mostly... I'm confused. And I realize some of you 'have nothing to say to me' if I don't get the problem, and that's fine... you don't have to talk to me, but... I Don't Get It.
So here's where I'm at: I am quietly (due to issues in my profession) bisexual. I consider myself aware of GLTB issues and and have done some advocacy work, but I can't say that it's become my second job or anything. I tend to think, though, that I know what's going on in the GLTB world.
Now, LJ wants you to pick a 'binary' gender for your account. I have not seen anything where they state that they will *know* if you outright lie to them. I have not seen anything that says you have to prove that your chromosomes match the gender that you present to the world. The purpose of this, we seem to think, is that they want to bombard you with ads that might (or might not) be more relevant to your gender.
What I'm seeing all over my LJ is that there is apparently a percentage of people who do not claim to identify as being... gendered. At all? Is that what I'm supposed to take away from this?
Because what I understand about being transgendered is that you are born with chromosomes that say "you are THIS gender", but you are emotionally and psychologically sure that you should actually be THAT gender. Yes? Now granted, I only know a few transgendered people, but none of you (since those of you I do know are on my f'list) has ever said to me, for example, "I was born male, but I'd prefer to be somewhere in between." It's always been, "I was born a this, but I'm more comfortable living as a that."
... so why not tell LJ that you are the gender you are comfortable living in?
I see people going, "OMG! What other binary choice will we have to make? Race? Religion? Other factor that is generally regarded as having a range of choices?" And I just don't get the extrapolation. (Again, not defending LJ, just not getting it...) We are living in a world where gender is a binary choice. When you go to McDonald's and need to wash your hands, you have to go into either the men's room or the ladies' room. Your driver's license (at least in the US) has to list you as one or the other.
So, for like, the third time, I'm not defending LJ. They do wacky shit that leads to more wacky shit. So, yeah... WTF LJ? But even with a very diverse f'list and some RL friends who are open with me regarding their sexuality and gender (and I hesitate to use this word, but can't think of a better one right now) issues, I'm still baffled by the people who are so *very very* up in arms over this.
Is it just that I've never met anyone who really, really doesn't consider them to have a gender and now these people are being marginalized? Is there a bigger security/privacy issue that could come up if people were to know my gender? The gender a person presents to the world, even if it isn't aligned with their genes?
So I'm leaving this post unlocked and I'll even activiate anonymous comments (if I can figure out how, and only for as long as people are civil), because obviously somewhere along the line, I failed to be introduced to the massive problem everyone else sees with this new weirdness from LJ.
If you're really uncomfortable with the fact that I'm so clueless that you want to remove me from your reading list/f'list/whatever we're calling it this week, go ahead, but I'm seriously a more than a little baffled by the amount of homg!rage that this is engendering. I could understand a little better if it was just a case of "Screwy LJ wants more of my personal information than I want to give them," but this doesn't seem to be that. It's more about the removal of the 'other' option, because that seems to be leaving a segment of the population without an honest choice, and that... perplexes me.
ETA: So what I'm seeing in the comments (and I'll get back and answer you all in just a second...) is that there *is* a group of people for whom this is a problem because they do NOT see themselves as having a gender. It's not just that their brain and their chromosomes can't *agree* on a gender, it's that regardless of chromosomes, they feel neither male or female. Yes? Because, like I've said, I've met transmen and transwomen, but I have not encountered someone who has told me they are 'none of the above'. So this, apparently, is just a case of me not having exposure to this group of people to the extent that I really didn't know that they existed. Which is where my confusion stemmed from. Thanks for the information, this does make things somewhat clearer for me.