New Delhi: For the first time, Facebook is letting its users identify themselves as a gender other than male and female. The social media giant has added a customisable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them. A message on Facebook might now invite a user's friend to write a birthday message on "their" wall, instead of "his" or "her" wall.
The basic user profile for members now includes a customisable category among the gender types that users must select, Facebook announced on Thursday. The feature was first rolled out (like many other Facebook features) to users with their language settings as US English.
The new feature is aimed at giving people more choices in how they describe themselves, such as androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid or transsexual.
Facebook said users also can control the audience who can view a custom choice, noting the challenges that some people may face in publicly sharing their gender identity. The company said it worked with a leading group of gay and transgender advocacy organizations to come up with the selection of identity options. Users of rival Google+ social network already had an "other" option for gender.
At this point, Facebook targets advertising according to male or female genders. For those who change to something neutral, ads will be targeted based on the pronoun they select for themselves. Unlike getting engaged or married, changing gender is not registered as a "life event" on the site and won't post on timelines. Therefore, Facebook said advertisers cannot target ads to those who declare themselves transgender or recently changed their gender.
Users also can select "neither" or "other" and separately indicate whether they want to be referred to as he, she or they.
"We want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self," Facebook said.
Rose Venkatesan, India's first transgender television host and radio jockey, expressed her delight at the new feature in a Facebook update, "Finally, Facebook has added other options for gender than Male and Female. I expressed my issue some months ago that FB doesn't have options beyond M and F. I am now Trans Woman, in FB gender. Yeah!"
Full list of the new custom gender options in Facebook profiles
- Agender- Androgyne- Androgynous- Bigender- Cis- Cis Female- Cis Male- Cis Man- Cis Woman- Cisgender- Cisgender Female- Cisgender Male- Cisgender Man- Cisgender Woman- Female to Male- FTM- Gender Fluid- Gender Nonconforming- Gender Questioning- Gender Variant- Genderqueer- Intersex- Male to Female- MTF- Neither- Neutrois- Non-binary- Other- Pangender- Trans- Trans Female- Trans Male- Trans Man- Trans Person- Trans Woman- Trans*- Trans* Female- Trans* Male- Trans* Man- Trans* Person- Trans* Woman- Transgender Female- Transgender Person- Transgender Woman- Transmasculine- Transsexual- Transsexual Female- Transsexual Male- Transsexual Man- Transsexual Person- Transsexual Woman- Two-spirit
(With inputs from agencies)
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