14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook users in the United Kingdom are going to be able to choose from over 70 new gender options as the company has decided to expand a feature that it implemented in the United States a few months back.
The new gender options, out of which about 50 were introduced in the US back in February, include trans person, polygender, cisgender and androgynous, but additional options can be created by users.
Facebook is thus continuing its effort to help everyone feel at ease on the platform, regardless of what gender they feel they are and how they address gender-based issues. The company has worked alongside two British organizations to select the new options. According to The Independent, for instance, the UK market now has some unique options to pick from including hermaphrodite and asexual.
Furthermore, just like in the US market, British citizens can choose which pronoun they’d like to be referred to, choosing between male, female and neutral.
The visibility of these options can be adjusted as well, meaning that people will be able to control which friends can see the profile details.
While the data will be stored in Facebook’s vaults, marketers won’t be able to do much with it since they can’t target new gender options just yet and limit themselves to male and female since that’s easier to target with current systems in place.
Stephen Whittle, VP at Press for Change, one of the organizations that Facebook worked with for the British list, said that the social network was allowing thousands of people to describe themselves as they saw fit, which would also help future generations feel comfortable in their own skins.
Changing your gender on the network is an extremely simple process and you only have to visit your own profile and go to the “About” section in the left side area. Pick “Update Info” and scroll down to “Contact and Basic Information.” Clicking the “edit” crayon on the side will enable you to pick a gender from a drop-down menu.
If you want to add a custom option, a fill-in box will appear and you can type it in. If the letters you type fit one or more of the already available options, these will appear underneath. The pronoun option will also be editable from the same area, as well as the privacy settings, which match those available for any other feature on the site.