Some days, I get too excited by social media happenings. Most recently it's Facebook. For once, though, it's nothing that my friend posted nor something that my frenemy posted. Facebook changed their options for listing gender. There's now a custom option in addition to male and female. The custom feature opens a dropdown menu with a full offering of cisgender and transgender identities. You get the option of choosing what pronoun Facebook uses for you, too.
I'm pretty close to giddy.
You see, the words people use to describe me have generally been words I'd use to describe myself. For the most part, those words haven't been derogatory. I've been called a bitch by a few people and could live without that. I can get annoyed when I'm called a girl in a degrading way. Still, those are exceptions, not the rule.
I'm straight and cisgender. People look at me and assume I'm female. The only time I've been mistaken for a gender other than the one with which I was born and with which I identify is when people start talking to me before I get out of my truck. Yes, we are still that stuck in gender stereotypes. I have far too many stories about too many people assuming pastors are male.
For the most part, though, gender and all the words about gender come without a question for me. That's not true for all people.
So thank you, Facebook, for getting this right. Thank you for letting people choose the words to describe themselves. Thank you for reminding cisgender folks that there's a weird sounding word for us, too. Thank you for reminding us that it's not as black and white as male and female. We need it more than we realize!
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