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e pluribus…wait, what?

Here it is — just in time for Valentine’s Day — FaceBook’s new list of all the possible ways to describe your gender on your FB profile:

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*Female
Trans*Male
Trans*Man
Trans*Person
Trans*Woman
Transexual
Transexual Female
Transexual Male
Transexual Man
Transexual Person
Transexual Woman
Transgender Female
Transgender Person
Transmasculine
Two-spirit

Huh. Many of these words mean the same thing. I guess in the world of people who disagree with the big basic dichotomy, the subtleties — things like the difference between trans, trans*, transgender or transsexual — loom large.

Nope. That didn’t make sense to me, either.

More likely, FaceBook is leaking badly and is desperate to pump some air back in. I’m not sure this is the way to do it, but hey — am I a billionaire? No. I am not.

Oh, do yourselves a favor: don’t ever undertake a Google Images search of “reproductive organs,” m’kay?

Comments


Comment from David Gillies
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:17 pm

So these people believe they are “a man trapped in a woman’s body”, or whatever that list of nonsense up there is. Some people believe they are Napoleon trapped in a man’s body. With luck that body is trapped in a loonie bin. I don’t see why we should indulge these weirdos in their hallucinations. The mentally ill should be treated, not feted.


Comment from MikeW
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:25 pm

Gender Fluid?

Ew, ew, ew, where’s the soap?


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:29 pm

I’m a “man”, she’s a “woman”, everyone who can’t be clearly placed into one of those two categories is “fuckin’ weird California homo shit”.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:30 pm

& kids. Kids are kids & they shouldn’t be allowed to touch the PBR until they’re at least 6.


Comment from thefritz
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:41 pm

I like Two-spirit…it leaves the door open.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 13, 2014, 11:53 pm

Yah, two-spirit sounds very red Indian.

What? They still say red Indian here.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:02 am

El Mexicano Rojo.


Comment from sandman cheerfully says screw you…
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:06 am

so no deference for the vas deferens?
no service from the cervix?

I just like girls. Im a guy. Is that really so hard?
C’mon ya freaks, give it a rest. Go suck a doorknob or something. Sheesh.


Comment from dissent555
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:16 am

Oh, do yourselves a favor: don’t ever undertake a Google Images search of “reproductive organs,” m’kay?

hmmm … almost all the images are human. The Internet is highly biased.


Comment from MikeW
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:21 am

That list is, like, so-o-o limiting it’s offensive. Obviously they’re just going to have to open it up so a person can enter anything that they want to advertise themselves as. Even I can think of a few they missed:
If they allow Cis, then why not Bro? If they have MTF and FTM, shouldn’t they have WTF? I can sort of understand that they didn’t include Eunuch though, since sick people would start making jokes at their expense.
Eu-nuch-nuch
“Eu-who’s there?”
Boo
“Boo who?”
Ha! What a crybaby. You won’t catch me bawlin’.
🙂


Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:28 am

I don’t give a shit what people call themselves, or how they define themselves as long as they aren’t fuckin’ brownshirts about it.
Many years ago, I met a dude through friends of friends who gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies. He creeped me out so badly that I could not stand being in the same room with him,. He was an ex-junkie who called himself “Red Ed” and wore nothing but red clothing. I moved away and returned to visit years later, and met with those friends. This dude showed up, but now was undergoing gender-reassignment and called himself, “Caroline” and dressed in all red women’s clothing and claimed that he had no interest in men and would become a lesbian.

He was still odd, but the instinctual desire to behead him and salt the earth behind me had gone away. “She” was almost tolerable. I can’t explain my responses to that person, either the before or after, but it made me think that person there was something biologically mistaken in the anatomy they were born with. There are thousands of genetic mistakes that happen every day, and we acknowledge them. I just include this in with the rest of them and feel pity for those who have to figure out a way to live with it.

There is also a lady who was a man running as a conservative in a district near ours. I’ve spoken to her several times and she’s a bit masculine (says the former-Army tomboy with the short hair and potty mouth) but otherwise just a relatively normal human being trying to make a more business friendly environment for our state.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:32 am

Awwww…see, Feynmangroupie is why we can’t have a good wilding.


Comment from Veeshir
Time: February 14, 2014, 12:50 am

The funniest part is how upset the LGBTRLPSV… community gets all angry when you aren’t fully up to date with whatever Newspeak word they have for whatever they’re claiming is a new gender. I like the “cis” bit, I think it’s the same thing as “trans” but I’m not sure.

I’ll stick with Ford Fairlane’s characterization, transtesticles, until I get the difference explained more clearly.

I will admit this on the intertubes.

In the mid-80s I lived in Portsmouth, NH with my brother and his boyfriend.
Almost all my friends were gay. I was 21 and in good shape so I was the butt of all sorts of rumors but I can say I”m totally confident in my sexuality and that I really like girls.

So, the point (yay!)
We were at a bar and my brother told me this person was interested. I looked, what a hottie. I mean, very freaking hot. Beautiful face, nice legs, great butt and perky, if small, boobs.

Turns out, it was a guy halfway through to being a girl. He still had his outie. There was one more operation to go.

I told my brother to tell him to call me when he was a she.
Alas, I moved away before (s)he was finished.

I always wonder if I would have gone through with it, I think I would have. I also wonder what it would have been like. Not enought to go searching, but….

TMI?


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: February 14, 2014, 1:13 am

The complete list of initials is LGBTTIQQ2S.

One thing we’re learning is that there are genuinely ambiguous people. Look up Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, for instance.

Another thing is that gender identity is neurological, not anatomical. There’s wiring in the brain that says “male” or “female”; and the resulting perception is independent of anatomical signals. If it’s wrong (and it can be wrong)…

A third thing is that there are people (nearly all men) who fetishize opposite sex characteristics to the point of wanting to embody them.

It’s not easy to differentiate between those with genuine physical anomalies, those with genuine neurological anomalies, and those who are just perverts.

It is, however, easy to ridicule those who use terms like “cisgender” and “heteronormative”.


Comment from weasel tablet
Time: February 14, 2014, 1:17 am

Cis actually means your brain and your genitals agree.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:04 am

I gave up on the whole deal after watching the HOUSE MD episode SKIN DEEP.

On another note, the cowards at National Review have thrown Mark Steyn under the bus on the ridiculous defamation lawsuit by pseudo-climatologist Michael Mann.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/james-delingpole/9136061/the-martyrdom-of-mark-steyn/


Comment from Nina
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:10 am

I’m a woman trapped in a woman’s body, so I guess I’m good.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:14 am

I’m a Cis Alcoholic.


Comment from tomfrompv
Time: February 14, 2014, 3:09 am

My car has a trans-axle, does that count for something at Facebook?

And what does “MTF” stand for?


Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: February 14, 2014, 4:07 am

Was I being “that guy” but whatever the female version is? What is a wilding?


Comment from JeffS
Time: February 14, 2014, 4:45 am

I can’t believe that there isn’t an option for “None”.

And, no, “Other” isn’t the same. Nor is “Neither”.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 14, 2014, 6:37 am

Man, y’all’s a buncha perverts & weirdos. Weasel, keep your chickens locked up at night.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 14, 2014, 1:11 pm

“Wilding” is when groups of violent yoots swarm all over their territory like a pack of wild dogs, committing mayhem.

And I was just woofin’ ya, FG.


Comment from Pablo
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:01 pm

I guess in the world of people who disagree with the big basic dichotomy, the subtleties — things like the difference between trans, trans*, transgender or transsexual — loom large.

What is the determining factor between any one and any other? Why, it’s whatever you feel good about! Pick the one you like, cupcake! Very sciencey, that.


Comment from Tom
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:11 pm

Call me crazy (you wouldn’t be the first) but I didn’t see plain old “male” and “female” on the list. I know, only because this subject has Bader-Meinhoff Syndromed itself around the web over the past few days, that cis male and cis female are what all the cool kids are calling it these days, but if Facebook really wants to be inclusive why not use the two terms that 99.99999% of their 1.19 billion(!?) users recognize and most likely use themselves?

I know, I know, I’ll get me coat.


Comment from dissent555
Time: February 14, 2014, 2:28 pm

Oh, SMOD; why do you tarry?


Comment from Lou
Time: February 14, 2014, 3:01 pm

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do


Comment from Can’tHarkMyCry
Time: February 14, 2014, 4:20 pm

What Feynmangroupie and Rich Rostrom said. Yeah, people who are in your face about it can be a pain; but the differences are real.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 14, 2014, 4:54 pm

Amputations are real, you guys.

You need to be more understanding of amputees.

You need to celebrate amputations.

If you don’t celebrate amputations you’re a bigot.

Etc.


Comment from MikeW
Time: February 14, 2014, 7:01 pm

Does anyone here know why it is that liberals push so hard to remove obese Trans Persons from the food supply? Aren’t they what makes Soylent Green so tasty? I just don’t see why they’re the only ones who should be safe.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 14, 2014, 7:06 pm

Oh, man, the amputee fetish is a strange one. I mean the drawn-to-amputees thing is a strange one, but the obsession with having a limb removed is just…boggling.

Sorry, Stark woke up a braincell.


Comment from MikeW
Time: February 14, 2014, 7:13 pm

From Wikipedia: The terms cis and trans are from Latin, in which cis means “on the same side” and trans means “on the other side” or “across”.
So when Bill Clinton was getting something on the side from Lewinsky did that make him a Trans Male? Or was Monica a Trans Female because she was the side order? When Hillary has those private moments with Huma is she a Cis Female because she’s getting something on the ‘same side’?
This whole thing has me so confused.


Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: February 14, 2014, 7:58 pm

I’m still giggling over MikeW’s interpretation of Gender Fluid. Heh, I’ll never define it the same, and now I wonder if there’s a gland that secretes it, possibly as defense mechanism against predation.

Stoaty,

I can be a yoot! Just let me put my glasses and book away. Is there a dress code? Do I need a license? Is there an online course in mayhem that I can take?


Comment from Mojo
Time: February 14, 2014, 9:57 pm

“You’re lathering me with your micro-aggressive attitude!”

“No, I’m trying to ignore you. Go away.”


Comment from Oceania
Time: February 14, 2014, 11:06 pm

It will be easier to mentally manipulate you Amerikans with Facebook.

While you are confused about what gender you are, we have you under total control. You can’t function without the internet, take away food or petrol.

Just in time to enact the Final Solution.


Comment from Frit
Time: February 14, 2014, 11:30 pm

I’ve never had a problem with someone wanting to label themselves to reflect how they feel about themselves. As long as they don’t get pissy with me when advising me of the proper label to use, (and so far, no one has,) then it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.

The only problem I find is that there are some labels that definitely apply to certain people, and they refuse to acknowledge them. (Usually labels such as ‘Bigot’, and ‘Hypocrite’.)


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: February 15, 2014, 3:46 am

MikeW @February 14, 2014, 7:01 pm:

Does anyone here know why it is that liberals push so hard to remove obese Trans Persons from the food supply?

You think you’re being original and funny. But actually, you’re lagging.

You may have noticed that there is a “fat pride” movement out there. And thus a “fat identity”.

So, now, there are people out there who “identify” as fat when they’re actually not fat. Some of them wear padding to achieve their desired bodyform (like a transsexual who dresses as someone of the target sex). Lots of padding, apparently. These people describe themselves as… “trans fat”.

“I’m not making this up, you know.”


Comment from Davem123
Time: February 15, 2014, 5:02 am

That many ways to ID your gender and no “Male” or “Female”. MikeW is right – WTF should definitely be on the list.

I heard the term “Gender Fluid” for the first time today. Not here, oddly enough. On a TV news program. It sounds more like a disease vector than a gender identity.


Comment from MikeW
Time: February 16, 2014, 12:20 am

Rich Rostrum @ February 15, 2014, 3:46 am:
You think you’re being original and funny. But actually, you’re lagging.

Ah, Rich, you think you’re being insightful and informative. Do I care whether my thoughts are always original? Not hardly. I’m nowhere near that vain. Do I care that you didn’t ‘get’ my joke? You can rest easy on that score. Was it funny? Yes, yes it was.

Was it an epic joke? Puh-lease. I had thought at first to try some sort of Emily Litella riff of “What’s all this I hear about the Government trying to ban obese transsexuals?…” with the Jane Curtain rejoinder on Trans Fats being a food additive instead of people, followed by the expected sting “Ne-ver mind”. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to develop sufficiently and that Soylent Green likely has better recognition than an old SNL skit. Whatever. That joke, and the others I made on this thread, were all throw away attempts at ridicule of a subject I find to be ludicrous. From a Progressive’s point of view I was employing Alinsky’s rule number 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

Speaking of rules, you are aware of Rule 34 of the Internet, aren’t you? “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.” It also follows that for any kind of porn, there are people who are turned on by it. I harbor no incredulity in that regard. I’d say your friends who self-identify as Trans Fats are certainly at the mild end of body dysmorphic disorder. Even the aforementioned “amputee thing” becomes easy to believe if you stumble into a BMEzine.com gallery.

It is not those who would romance the Rubenesque for whom I hold contempt. It is, instead, the evangelists and manipulators of the Cult of Self that I denounce. I would posit that legions of the [Facebook listed] gender confused are merely a product/victim of their upbringing.

Not everyone who imbibes a few drinks becomes an alcoholic. Not everyone who smokes a few joints becomes a junkie. But for some, being told repeatedly that ‘they’re special’ from the time they are able to understand the words may well result in an unrestrained id and an underdeveloped super-ego. Libido without self-censorship. Couple that with subpar post-pubescent social skills and you have a recipe to produce a personality drawn more to a self-indulgent fantasy identity than a heteronormative one.

The decrease in their enthusiasm to improve their desirability to those interested in procreation is matched by an increase in their need for acceptance as the lazy piece of work they remain. This gender mumbo jumbo is a defiant declaration of their continued specialness as the world begins to tell them otherwise.

All that said… I absolutely do believe there are people who are not genetically programmed to be a ‘standard’ heterosexual. There is no plausible reason why the great variety of physical characteristics apparent in humans doesn’t extend to variety within the brain. However, like alterations in physical genitalia, alterations in sexual behavior just aren’t going to propagate into non-existent offspring. Love may be a many gendered thing, but evolution is not. I just don’t think the majority of sexual aberrations are genetic in origin.

I guess I should end this before I say something stupid, eh? 🙂


Pingback from News of the Week (February 16th, 2014) | The Political Hat
Time: February 16, 2014, 11:50 pm

[…] e pluribus…wait, what? Here it is — just in time for Valentine’s Day — FaceBook’s new list of all the possible ways to describe your gender on your FB profile […]


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: February 18, 2014, 2:03 am

MikeW @February 16, 2014, 12:20 am:

Calm down, willya? Of course I got your joke. All I was trying to do was point out that however absurd and exaggerrated sane people get in pursuit of humor, the crazies are still ahead of us.

It’s like the scene in Kipling’s short story “The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat”. A musical-hall empresario has his best artistes pose as a Flat Earth Society to embarrass a village he (and the narrator and friends) have a grudge against… Then the real Flat Earth Society shows up, and they’re much funnier than his fake one.

No, I don’t have any “trans fat” friends.


Comment from JuliaM
Time: February 22, 2014, 7:02 am

Via Patterico, this:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/gender-neutral_employee_sues_f.html

Facebook have no clue what they’ve unleashed, do they?


Comment from Wibble
Time: February 24, 2014, 3:38 pm

Of course we could allow people to simply define themselves however they like, as it ultimately has no actual impact on ourselves.

Still that would be unseemly chaos and we can’t have that.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 25, 2014, 12:27 am

If I’m in the ladies’ loo with you and you have a dick, I’m probably going to call security. That’s likely to have an impact. Without shared definitions, we don’t speak the same language.


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Time: February 28, 2014, 10:30 am

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Time: March 1, 2014, 5:54 am

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Comment from Leonard Jones
Time: March 21, 2014, 1:51 am

I thought there were only 4; Man, woman, Lebanese and
rod-smoker!

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