Not again, LiveJournal...

[matrixrefugee]

So it seems LiveJournal wants to oblige everyone creating new accounts to specify their gender. One thing I really don't like doing is giving out my gender online, and I know people have different reasons for not specifying their gender, some of them very personal. Let's hope some feedback can get them to reverse this change I know people who are prepared to leave LJ on account of this, and I really don't want to have to chase all over the Internet trying to keep in touch with them.

EDITED TO ADD: It seems they're also removing the "unspecified" option. This does not bode well at all...

Turned out better than we'd feared

Comments

[anivad.livejournal.com]

Whaaaat.

Is it just new accounts, or will this likely spread to current accounts?

If all else fails, could they replace 'gender' with 'sex'?

And then an option for the intersexed people in this world?

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't put it past LJ to start obliging *everyone* to declare their gender. I don't think having a "sex" option would work, either, since that's one of the hot-button words which certain parental watchdog groups cringe at the mere mention of. Plus I think a lot of intersexed/transgender people tend to shy away from declaring what they are since they try to avoid being targeted by those narrow-minded wack-jobs who think that humanity only comes in pink and blue with no shades of purple in between.

[veilofveronica.livejournal.com]

That's just awful. That information should definately be kept in the "optional" category, for several reasons.
I hope the feedback convinces them to change it.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Oh that's my main reason for being disgusted with this situation myself: I'm leery of giving out my gender on here (especially after the incident of the guy with Asperger's Syndrome who had No Sense of Personal Boundaries Whatsoever. Ask me about it.)

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

Consider this me, asking about it. o_o

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Long story, but there was this guy who'd found me via the asperger comm, who'd posted a few comments that made me more than a little uncomfortable; I'd initially friended him, since he'd seemed interesting, but I started to have second thoughts since he had this tendency to post some... really disturbing hentai manga/doujinshi frames on his LJ (mostly lolicon) and would not put them behind an LJ-cut. I have no control over what people put in their LJ's, but if someone is going to put not work-safe, not brain-safe either images on there, common courtesy would say to put them behind an LJ-cut, non? I asked him politely if he would do so, but he refused, and not only cited the First Amendment, but also some Supreme Court cases on censorship. I de-friended him. He came whining onto my LJ asking me why I'd de-friended him, I explained why, but that wasn't good enough, so I had to ban him from my LJ and I reported him. He's since deleted his account (or had it deleted, whichever came first). One of those instances of "Get out of this demographic, you're making us look like perverts".

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

I've heard rumors that people who act like jerks are starting to claim Asperger's as an excuse. Which is a slap in the face for people who REALLY have Asperger's.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I'd been inclined to wonder that myself, in retrospect, though this guy had some of the earmarks: he was actually quite intelligent, he just needed to get a handle on his hormones (which might have put him into the atypical Aspergerian territory). It's when they act rude and then cry Asperger's that I call troll, though this guy never used his condition as an excuse, which made me give him the benefit of the doubt, but that still didn't make me change my decision to show him the door.