Spacious Perspicacious

(via Poly in Pictures - 174. Chromosomes)

Gosh, another comic? Well.

mxactivist:

Facebook’s attitude to gender and sex is a little mystifying.

You can go to your profile and change your sex by clicking “Update Info”. But once you’re there, there’s nothing about gender or even non-binary sex. Not only does that totally mess with people whose gender and sex don’t match, it rules out anyone with non-binary gender who can overlook the gender vs. sex conundrum.

You can check a box that lets you hide your gender on your profile, but FB continues to use gendered pronouns throughout the site as long as you have a sex selected. (Correct me if I’m wrong, there?)

And while many people have blogged about how to “deselect” sex in the profile to make FB use singular “they”, that’s not really good enough for those of us who want to specify our gender as queer or nonbinary. We have to be binary or in the closet.

This is not okay.

And there’s no reason for FB to not implement this, since singular “they” can be used by default for anyone who’s not got a binary sex/gender listed.

It’s worth adding that DeviantArt have got an “other” option for sex/gender.

I’m pretty sure that all of this is because FB is an advertisement machine and we’re the fuel; I’ve been told before by other survey providers that anything that’s not male or female is unknown, and advertisers don’t know what to do with the information, so they just don’t give it as an option.

Anyway, to get to the action bit.

Things you can do:

• Fill in their feedback form.
• Call them: 001-650-543-4800
• Fax them: 001-650-543-4801
• Fill in their general report form.
• Fill in their form about the profile/timeline.
• Fill in their form about violation or infringement of rights. (They mean copyright and trademark and intellectual property, but I used it anyway.)
• Let me know their snail mail/postal address if you can find it or if you know it! Submit/ask

I cannot find anything anywhere about complaints or actual postal addresses. What the hell.

Anyway, here’s what I’m writing. I’m using the violation of rights form to see what happens. There’s a bit that says: “Please identify the content on Facebook that you allege is violating or infringing your rights.” That’s for Facebook URLs only, so scroll down a little way to “Provide information sufficient for us to locate the content on Facebook (1,000 character limit)”

It’s on every Update Info form for every profile/timeline. Sex is a biological thing, and gender is a social thing. Your profile form asks for sex, but someone can be biologically female and present as male and be known by friends and family as male, for example. So the form label “sex” should be changed to “gender.” And next is that not everyone’s sex *or* gender is binary, ie: male/female; sometimes people are intersex or genderqueer/nonbinary. Your website lets someone select male, female, or neither. This means that genderqueer and intersex people have to pick an inaccurate gender or stay “in the closet.” The solution is to provide the third gender option of “other” (as DeviantArt have), or “nonbinary”, and have pronouns for these choices on the rest of the site default to singular “they” as happens when no sex is selected. It’s important to include your gender minorities, no? I want to know what you think. Thank you.

Another question further down says, “How does the content violate or infringe your rights?” I’ve said:

It is someone’s right to be recognised for their gender. Your website allows only sex, and has only two options.

I then got a message saying “Thanks for contacting Facebook.” It said they’d get back to me. I will let you know what happens.

Blog your messages and where you send them. Blog the responses you get. I will reblog them here if you tag them with mxactivist.

If you think Facebook should allow more than two genders, do this stuff here. :)

(Source: equivamp)

phileasfogghorn:

olivercromwellcrowley:

I’m going to prove this wrong one point at a time, color-coded style for simplicity. Remember, children, I only highlighted the things that are utter bullshit. For bonus fun, read just the parts that are not highlighted, i.e true.

Red— Oxytocin is released at many point in a person’s life for any number of reasons; including the ones mentioned above, social interaction, and masturbation.

Orange— Oxytocin does help foster an attachment in social situations, sex, and during its other times of release, but the attachment is by no means lifelong.

Yellow— Contrary to the hot mess way up above, men also release it during all the same situations women do, excluding the baby-having ones.

Green— Once the hormone levels fade back to baseline, there is no permanent change in thought or emotion due to the increase in Oxytocin

Blue— Oxytocin cannot cause lasting psychological damage unless there is a complete lack of its ability to be made, received, or processed.

Indigo— Humans are certainly not designed to have only one partner. The head of the human penis is extremely effective at removing the seed of other males, not to mention the fact that evolutionary biologist theorize that a woman’s moaning during sex was intended to attract other males to ensure pregnancy.

Violet— Multiple releases of Oxytocin actually increase the ability to synthesize more Oxcytocin. So, in theory, having more sex and positive social experiences will make you a more empathetic person and help you release more of it during situations where it is required.

Look at you, being wrong in all the colors of the rainbow.

My hero

(Source: brynn3)

(via 169. Daft)

Another one, innit. Two in two days! What the hell is going on???!!!!?

(via 168. Mundane)

Ooo, new comic. Yes, you may fall over now.