Thursday, December 17, 2009

I agree with Feministing on this one... Genderfail: Livejournal to change code to binary choices only

Check this out.

WHY do people HAVE to choose one or the other, especially on a journal site? Really?

4 comments:

De Las Ondas said...

Uggh. I've been a livejournal user for many years now, and while I don't update it that frequently anymore, I have always appreciated the diverse number of "communities" and the gender neutrality option.

Feministing encourages you to take action:

"The systematic oppression and erasure of transpeople, genderqueer, and intersexual individuals is a feminist issue that calls for immediate action. The next code push will most likely occur as early as this Thursday or next , at which point, users will be forced to select a binary gender. Please spread the word and raise awareness about this issue.

If you are not a LiveJournal user, please send emails of your disapproval to Anjelika, the general manager of US operations: anjelika@livejournalinc.com."

De Las Ondas said...

Sorry for the double post, but I went ahead and emailed Livejournal and wanted to share what I said.


Anjelika and livejournal staff,

I have had a livejournal account for many years. I have not been as active with it recently, but I have never considered deleting my account because I appreciate the diverse communities on LJ and I have always been very happy about the option to not choose "male" or "female."

I have no idea what your position on the issue is, but I urge you to do whatever is in your power to keep this from happening. It is wrong to force people who identify as intersexed, gender queer, and transgendered to pick between two genders. By erasing a gender neutral option, LJ is essentially saying that it doesn't recognize the existence of these individuals, and/or does not care about the implications of a binary gender identification option for them.

As the social networking world continues to change, and new and improved sites pop up, I'm sure that sites like LJ, facebook, myspace etc. will need to do what they can to retain membership. What better a way then to demonstrate that you support all people, regardless of gender identity by encouraging them to identify as they feel most comfortable. In fact, I would encourage you to not only rethink this proposal, but in the future to offer a more diverse set of gender identifications which would include transgender, intersex and gender queer as options in addition to male, female, and other.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Ondine Miranda Quinn
"Dislntegratlon"

Jessie Maims said...

What I found on the LJ post in question, in comments:

(posted by a user who contacted LJ directly about the issue)

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.

At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.

The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.

Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.

Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team

Meracle Whip said...

It is researched and recognized that gender is not defined by the mythical binary system of male and female. If one is forced to present or state gender then the list of options must include every form of gender and nongender. At the very least an “other” or “nongender” category should be available. Not only is it the compassionate thing to do but, it is in accordance with values and provisional facts set forth by global professional circles that advocate truth and understanding.

However, we must examine situations in which we force collection and publication of gender data. We cannot ignore assumptions and judgments we make about gender. For that reason gender is a protected immutable characteristic and privacy is undeniable.

For a social-networking or social media site to require disclosure of gender creates another societal framework that continues to operate within the confines, limitations, and dangers of an isolating and fictional binary system. Not only is that a step backwards that enforces opposition to promoting the equality and embracing the differences of humankind but, consequently it disrupts the progress of the consciousness of our cosmos.

Gee I wouldn’t want to have the weight of that on my shoulders. Who made that decision anyway? The lack of empathy needed to render that must mean it is a man's decision. Er, um, hmm, is that statement an assumption or judgment based on gender as ambiguously defined by the irrational binary system of male and female?

According to Jessie Maims’ comment above the integrity of the website in question may have been subjected to gossip and may be a myth. If it is true that gender disclosure is a requirement then:

The person(s) responsible for requiring gender disclosure to participate in a social-networking website need(s) to remove their discriminatory and ignorant requirement immediately.