On Facebook you don't have to be "Male" or "Female". Giant of social media Facebook unveils new gender options for users. Since day one users have had to choose "female" or "male" gender when joining Facebook.But from today they will see 50 new options including "androgynous" (partly male or partly female in appearance) and "intersex".
Facebook said there are some changes shared with The Associated Press before the launch on Thursday.In US Facebook has around 159 million active monthly users and are aimed at giving more selections in how they describe themselves such as bi-gender, transsexual, androgynous etc.
Facebook now allows user to select gender-free pronoun, so the site would easily suggest to friends that they "wish them a happy belated birthday" rather than "wish him a happy belated birthday".
Software Engineer Of Facebook Brielle Harrison, who worked on the same project and is herself undergoing gender transformation from male to female. On Thursday Brielle Harrison told that she will also change her Facebook identity from Female to TransWoman.
She said: All too often transgender people like me and other genders nonconforming people are giving binary options. What is your gender? Do you want to be male or female? and its kind of disheartening because none of those let us tell others who we really are.
Facebook said that changes would initially be rolled out to users in North America , but as the day starts users from United Kingdom will be able to access the new gender options. A think tank based on (University of California) The William institute estimates that around 700000 people in United States identify in someway as a transgender.
The list of 50 gender options was drawn up after consultation with a range of different gender's group.They can easily hide gender settings by setting it to privacy.
Other social networking sites have already implemented same policies of other genders which became more widely considered. Just like Google Plus allows users to select from "Female", "Male" or "Other". The company says that only 1% of people identify as "Other" gender.
Facebook currently has more than 1 billion active monthly users around the globe. Facebook still allows the users to keep gender identity private and will continue to do so.
Currently Facebook targets adverts according to both genders "Male" or "Female". If user selects an option other than "Male" or "Female" then advertisement will be targeted based on the pronoun they choose to be mentioned with.
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