Because gender isn't binary
What is the purpose of this website?The point of this website is to encourage MySpace.com to allow its users an option to fill in their own gender instead of having to choose between "male" and "female." This website also advocates allowing users to fill in their own sexual orientation instead of having a list of MySpace-defined selections for people to choose from.
What can I do?
Post a bulletin . Friend this website . Put it in your top gazillion. Place a graphic on your MySpace page. Tell everyone you know about us. Tell everyone you know about it. Set your gender to be "female" if you're "male" or "male" if you're "female." Refuse to fill in your gender. Fill in your sexual orientation like this, where "queer" is whatever you identify as, including "gay," "pansexual," "bisexual," "straight," "asexual," "ally," whatever:
To get this:
So that when someone quickly scans your status box, they'll take your "hometown" listing to be your "orientation" because they're so used to your "orientation" being listed after "status."
AND! NEW 081207 | Thanks to a submission, you can also now write your own "details" box with a few simple steps. Check it out here !
What is the difference between sex and gender?
"Sex" is a biological definition -- it strictly pertains to what's between your legs. So your sex is your penis, vagina, or intersexed genitalia. EDIT | 082307 | Several people have written in to note that sex also includes the legal and social classes associated with the social construct of sex -- that is, that sex is not only a biological definition, but it is also carries a much stronger social definition "invented by ... participants in a particular culture or society[,] ...exist[ing] because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow conventional rules." 1 What this means, basically, is that sex exists in the binary form the mainstream ascribes to today because society decided sex was binary, which means that it's just as easy for society to "undecide" that sex is binary as well.
"Gender," however, is an emotional or mental concept of what you believe your sex to be -- for some people, this means that, even though they have a vagina, they feel more comfortable identifying as male. For others, they have a penis and are comfortable identifying as male. And for others still, no matter what their genitalia is, they don't feel comfortable identifying as any of the "traditional" genders. What's important with gender is that it is an individual's self-defined concept of gender, and it is what makes them feel comfortable.
More FAQs...
Graphics
All you gotta do is highlight, copy and paste the text in the text box beneath the image to a field on your MySpace page, like the "about me" field.
NEW GRAPHICS | 081507
More graphics...
Contact Info
Who made this group?*waves* Hi, I'm Andrea. I'm 21 and I'm from Maine. I identify as genderqueer. My personal MySpace is here .
Is there anybody else 'round this hurr place that I can talk to?
Yeah, there sure is! The fabulous Cecily , who is 22 and from Washington State, is the other brainiac behind the scenes at this hurr operation. Cecily handles approving friend requests and responding to general messages, and she also writes our "History of the Movement" blog feature among countless other awesome things.
I have a question!
Excellent! E-mail us at [email protected] and we'll try to get back to you within 24 hours.
Supporters
We believe that gender is not binary, that freedom of gender expression is a RIGHT, not a privilege, and that MySpace's gender options should be more inclusive, including the ability to write in one's own gender AND the option to NOT specify a gender.We have 1915 supporters as of July 7, 2008 at 4:40 PM: