Gender/Race Demographic and Facebook

Menus online asking you to choose a race or gender, for example, are oftentimes stereotypical and, in fact, unnecessary to many. The notion of online identity and its importance is still a relevant subject. It has been since the beginning of the internet and the web. Nakamura argues that although users are able to engage in content online anonymously, they are still often forced to place themselves in a predetermined group, whether it be a gender, race or ethnicity.

I decided to conduct my own mini-experiment with Facebook and the steps the site gives users to join. At first glance, you see the average questions any site looking to gain your membership would ask: first and last name, email, password, gender and birthday. Something I noticed, however, is beneath the birthday options, an info link explains why Facebook needs your birth date. It says, "Providing your birthday helps make sure you get the right Facebook experience for your age. You can choose to hide this info from your timeline later if you want. For more details, please visit our Data Use Policy."

Because of the increase in discussion of race and gender, it is interesting that there isn't a similar info link beneath gender (the two options are male or female, but what if you identify with another term?)

This link to Allout.org is petitioning Facebook to include additional gender-options to include those people who do not identify with male or female. What is interesting to me is this claim directly from Allout.org: "Not only are you forcing transgender and gender variant people into the closet, but you are also making them violate Facebook's Terms of Use by lying about their legal identity." It is a movement of equality, and I think the necessary distinction between gender or race or other demographics directly ties in with that.