Facebook: 58 new “gender” choices. Blech.

This would be funny, if it weren’t so bizarre, twisted and sick.

From ABC:

Here’s a List of 58 Gender Options for Facebook Users

Facebook introduced dozens of options for users to identify their gender today – and although the social media giant said it would not be releasing a comprehensive list, ABC News has found at least 58 so far.
Previously, users had to identify themselves as male or female. They were also given the option of not answering or keeping their gender private.
User’s can now select a “custom” gender option.
“There’s going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the world,” Facebook software engineer Brielle Harrison told the Associated Press. Harrison, who worked on the project, is in the process of gender transition, from male to female.
Facebook will also allow users to select between three pronouns: “him,” “her” or “their.”
The following are the 58 gender options identified by ABC News:

  • Agender
  • Androgyne
  • Androgynous
  • Bigender
  • Cis
  • Cisgender
  • Cis Female
  • Cis Male
  • Cis Man
  • Cis Woman
  • Cisgender Female
  • Cisgender Male
  • Cisgender Man
  • Cisgender Woman
  • Female to Male
  • FTM
  • Gender Fluid
  • Gender Nonconforming
  • Gender Questioning
  • Gender Variant
  • Genderqueer
  • Intersex
  • Male to Female
  • MTF
  • Neither
  • Neutrois
  • Non-binary
  • Other
  • Pangender
  • Trans
  • Trans*
  • Trans Female
  • Trans* Female
  • Trans Male
  • Trans* Male
  • Trans Man
  • Trans* Man
  • Trans Person
  • Trans* Person
  • Trans Woman
  • Trans* Woman
  • Transfeminine
  • Transgender
  • Transgender Female
  • Transgender Male
  • Transgender Man
  • Transgender Person
  • Transgender Woman
  • Transmasculine
  • Transsexual
  • Transsexual Female
  • Transsexual Male
  • Transsexual Man
  • Transsexual Person
  • Transsexual Woman
  • Two-Spirit

This is crazy.  Again, I am reminded of the downfall of Númenor.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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117 Comments

  1. *tilts head to one side, reads list*

    *scratches head*

    *tilts head to other side, reads list again*

    Y’know, maybe I’m suffering from a Mystic Monk Coffee Deficiency here, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what half those words mean, much less what they’re supposed to mean.

    Someone take that dictionary away from the local Gender Studies department, will ya?

  2. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    They left out “Super Dude”. What am I supposed to do?

    [Dude… I know. I was like looking for General Expert.]

  3. wmeyer says:

    OK, this takes silly to a whole new level. And what might Cis stand for? Probably not Computer Information Sciences, I’m guessing, although there are people who think that all of us who work with computers are at least odd….

    And for transsexual and transgender as modifiers to conventional sexes (gender is a property of language; sex is a property of creatures), does the sex it modifies refer to the before, or after?

    One of the difficulties when people go making up terms (and clearly language comprehension is lacking) is that the intended meaning is largely in the eye of the beholder.

  4. wmeyer says:

    I suppose pangender could mean that they use gendered words indiscriminately?

  5. pelerin says:

    Ludicrous. Who invents these words? Looking down the list I don’t think I am on there at all! I wonder what the difference is between a Trans and a Trans*?

  6. Sonshine135 says:

    I’m offended. The left off Hard-Identity Catholic Male.

  7. iPadre says:

    Just a few that the left off the list:

    Celibate
    Consecrated Virgin
    Vowed Chastity
    Single for the sake of the Kingdom

    Eunuch (bizarre, but no more so than other things on the list)

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  8. NBW says:

    What is “two spirit” ? Does that mean the person is possessed?

  9. ppb says:

    wmeyer: I just tried looking up “cisgender,” but I’m afraid I won’t be able to help clarify what it means. My head is still spinning.

    iPadre: Yes, thank you! Those would be nice alternatives to the various “relationship status” monikers.

  10. Mike says:

    That anyone would select one of these “genders,” instead of one or the other sex, strikes me not so much as an affirmation of identity, but rather as a cry for help.

    Such a cry for help can be answered by faithful witness. It can also be answered by silence, pusillanimity or ridicule. Our call.

  11. Chris Garton-Zavesky says:

    Father,

    While I acknowledge that it is somewhat odd as a list, I find it quite enlightening — taken as a whole, not taken as individual items. Someone has claimed that if we redefine marriage to allow two men to marry or two women to marry, this will open up the definition to any number of redefinitions with any number of partners, human and non-human. Since allowing marriage “equality” was supposed to be a limited expansion to allow….. evidently there are more permutations waiting in the wings. Each one will require a lawsuit, pressure against those who refuse to cooperate…. and so the positively diabolical (to channel Michael Voris for a minute) takes center stage.

    On a lighter (but still relevant) side, I’ve just been rewatching The Keeper of Traken from Tom Baker’s years as Dr. Who. Something about that story seems applicable here. I wonder what the enormous prime number is?

  12. Joseph-Mary says:

    Wow, and here I thought the Lord God made the human race to be composed of male and female.

  13. Peggy R says:

    I can’t believe they left out:

    Sweet Transexual Transvestite from Transylvania.

    Dammit, Janet!

  14. wmeyer says:

    Saved by Wikipedia: “Cisgender and cissexual (often abbreviated to simply cis) describe related types of gender identity where an individual’s experience of their own gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth.”

    So I guess “cismale” means male. But male and female as terms have to be invalidated to make way for the brave new world order: secular hedonism.

    What gobbledygook. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which people go in trying to rationalize and justify perversion.

  15. @Peggy R:

    …can’t…stop…laughing…

    Nice one! :D

  16. The Cobbler says:

    I can’t believe they won’t let me specify my correct gender, Blue Pungent Downward Bunnyrabbit; the bigots!

  17. OrthodoxChick says:

    They left out Transversa and Trans Turbatus.

    Peggy R., LOL!!! You just gave me flashbacks! OK, who’s gonna be the first to post the video?!

  18. Palladio says:

    Me, too, Cobbler: Nobody’s taken notice that I’m a proud purple obsequious and clairvoyant American, not an American’t, and I feel quite ANGRY about that.

  19. Imrahil says:

    (speaking in alias)

    I beg to protest against associating of such stupid – insert expletive – with the noble King’s Men of old, the enemies of my forebears but also my relation.

    Ar-Pharazôn was a tyrant, a murderer, an occultist, an idolater, a persecutor, and a tool in the hands of him who we do not name. But for all that, he does not deserve to be associated with nonsense of that sort.

    They say he and his army, whose trumpets – that at least they were great at – were louder than the thunder, awaits the Final Battle to fight against who seduced him. About these ridiculous ideas and are guilty for their presence, does not the very comparison seem ridiculous? They won’t even be of use for the Enemy, once the Battle does come.

  20. Johnno says:

    Can I be a dog?

    I like dogs.

    [Yes, I suppose so. We already have a chicken here, after all. But several of the people over at Facebook who choose otherly from that list may want to marry you… alone and with ‘Others’.]

  21. Devo35 says:

    Why isn’t “normal” on this list?

  22. mamajen says:

    So I just went in to my settings to investigate, and it looks like you can type in whatever you darn well please if you choose “custom”. I haven’t attempted to save it, though, so maybe it only accepts certain ones. I also hate that one can choose “them” as pronoun of choice. Bad grammar!

  23. The Cobbler says:

    @Palladio, you’re not can’tophobic, I hope?

    Say, has anyone checked whether Smurf is on this list? If I recall correct that’s short for “Gender-Neutral/Genderless Until a Female is Introduced by Later Producers”.

  24. The Cobbler says:

    I’m thinking of switching to Derednegsdrawkcab. You all know about that, right? It’s the way they record your gender in Beatles songs.

  25. mamajen says:

    It seems broad, chick, gal, and girl are disallowed. It says you need to choose from the “custom” list, but the list isn’t provided.

  26. OrthodoxChick says:

    mamajen,

    What?? No Chicks??? Now what am I supposed to do?!

  27. acardnal says:

    XY = Male

    XX = Female

    Seems pretty simple.

  28. OrthodoxChick says:

    Pie and Palestrine & Peggy R.,

    On second thought, let’s skip the video and just throw toilet paper!

  29. Palladio says:

    Cobbler, I’m cantorphobic, and canterphobic, the former because of their (ther?, thir? thur?) too energetic arm gestures to the laity in Rock Mass, Pop Mass, and Church of What’s Happening Now, Baby, Mass, the latter because of a Catholic summer camp incident with a horse when I was 7.

  30. mrshopey says:

    So, Heinz has 57 and Facebook has 58!
    If insanity is out of touch with reality, Facebook wins the Planters Nut award.
    But, who really cares how confused someone is?
    Although, companies are using it, FB pages, in hiring.

  31. amenamen says:

    wmeyer: “So I guess “cismale” means male. But male and female as terms have to be invalidated …”

    Yes.
    I was wondering why Male and Female were not even listed among the 58 varieties (one more than either Heinz 57, or the 57 states on the mainland). Of course, if they were listed, that would implicitly deny the validity of all of the other options. Hence, the neologism “cis”.

    The terminology of “trans” and “cis” is obviously borrowed from an organic chemistry textbook.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cis%E2%80%93trans_isomerism

    Chemical isomers have the same chemical formula, but a different symmetry/asymmetry.
    We have all heard of fast-food French fries made with man-made “trans” fats, which are bad for you, because they do not occur naturally, and they are not properly digested.

  32. govmatt says:

    From the site that will allow you to have your newsfeed translated into Pirate…

  33. Nan says:

    @Devo35, I believe “normal” is forbidden.

  34. LeslieL says:

    @ Peggy R – thank you! That made me really laugh. *note to self – do NOT read comments and drink tea at the same time.
    As to the list – oh my. Insanity. BTW – Genderqueer? I thought “queer” was one of those words we’re not allowed to use anymore?

  35. AdTrinitatemPerMariam says:

    Oy.
    Just in case anyone was wondering, I’m female. Just plain ol’ ordinary female.

  36. robtbrown says:

    It reminds me of the new Coke Freestyle machines.

  37. robtbrown says:

    . . . but with only half the options.

  38. OrthodoxChick says:

    AsTrinitatemPerMariam,

    Yeah, but did you CHOOSE to identify yourself as female or are you really a male trapped in a female body; trapped by a bunch of self-absorbed promethean neopelagians? If you’re a Cis Male, you can come out to us. It’s OK. Really. You can. Who are we to judge?!

    [self-absorbed promethean neopelagian … hmmm…]

  39. Matthew says:

    When I was a kid I wanted to be a goat.

    I still do, and it looks like I might finally get my wish!

    You just play and eat and take naps, who wouldn’t want to be a goat?

  40. Sonshine135 says:

    @robtbrown

    That is perhaps the funniest comment I have ever seen on Fr. Z’s blog. You gave me a good belly laugh.

  41. Giuseppe says:

    @ acardnal says: XY = Male; XX = Female; Seems pretty simple.

    Are you mocking the intersex? While God may have created mankind male and female (Genesis 1:27, Genesis 5:2, Mark 10:6, etc.) this most likely refers to God’s original creation before original sin caused the first mutations in God’s created genome (and epigenetic proteins and RNA.) Yes, there is actual sin in some gender-confused children, adolescents, and young adults, and this can play a role in some of this Heinz 57 varieties of gender. (Although even in transgender children, there might be a biological component above and beyond actual sin.)

    So , I will grant mockery re. some gender identity. (Personality disordered adults who switch gender every few weeks.) But there truly is an entire class of people whose gender is not binary male/female. Like it or not, they exist.

    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001669.htm
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex (some crazy stuff, but the list of biological disorders of gender and sex is fairly good)

    They are not all gender-bending hippies. They are born this way. (I know we hate this expression, but humans are born with sin. It is embedded in our genome and epigenetics from conception.) Yes, a vast majority of creation is male/female. But not all. I pray that the intersex find the comfort of a loving God, as they often do not find is among God’s holiest creatures. Laugh at the hippies, but remember to try and parse out those whom God has allowed (as a result of original sin and Satan’s influence on the human genome) to be born intersex with genetic mutations, extra chromosomes, hormone excess, hormone receptor defects, etc.

  42. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    Matthew,

    I see someone (I think, some Swede – the national, not the vegetable) is working on a computer game which might help you explore your capercity (if that it the right Latinate word for ‘goatiness’). By the way, are you a fan of Frances Trego Montgomery’s book, Billy Whiskers, the Autobiography of a Goat?

  43. robtbrown says:

    Giuseppe says,

    Laugh at the hippies, but remember to try and parse out those whom God has allowed (as a result of original sin and Satan’s influence on the human genome) to be born intersex with genetic mutations, extra chromosomes, hormone excess, hormone receptor defects, etc.

    Satan is the first cause of all evil, but that doesn’t make him the immediate cause of every mutation, etc. When human death entered, so also did physical vulnerability to disease, etc.

  44. Palladio says:

    But, Giuseppe, ‘intersex’ is not so much sex as, according to the authorities on the link you helpfully provide, a disorder afflicting sex, and rather horribly at first. I don’t understand what they mean by the possibility of “overall excellent outlook,” but if they can fix the disorder, great. Thank you for bringing this to light. I’d only heard of it once, and never learned much about it.

  45. Natalie Anne says:

    What the heck are Neutrois and Non-binary? I’m laughing pretty hard right now because when I think of binary I think of those computer codes in 1’s and 0’s, so how can a person be binary to begin with much less “non-binary”? Neutrois sounds like neurosis… Looked up cis women and cannot understand it at all. Whats the difference between cis woman and cis female?

  46. OrthodoxChick says:

    Giuseppe,

    I think there’s still some debate as to whether people are born this way or whether there are factors from early childhood that can cause someone to feel this way. It’s still classified as “Gender Identity Disorder” by the APA. It’s just that now the culture is trying to normalize what was commonly recognized as being the result of psychological trauma. While that might spare the feelings of people with GID, it does them a disservice because it never helps them work through the trauma to reintegrate their identity with their biology. Instead, our culture is encouraging these poor souls to undergo a series of radical hormone therapy and mutilate their reproductive organs to make their physical appearance conform to their disorder. It would be much more loving, I think, if that were the other way around.

    http://allpsych.com/disorders/sexual/genderidentity.html

  47. Giuseppe says:

    @Palladio, when everything goes right XX and XY are binary and quite simple. And Genesis 1, 2, 5, Mark 10, etc, make sense. But there are so many steps along the way that they do not always go right. So the species can survive, those who have the problems which manifest before reproductive age never reproduce, so intersex problems often rely on either recessive traits, some sex-chromosome-linked traits, spontaneous mutations, or inbreeding (resulting in increased chance of 2 bad traits being manifest.

  48. majuscule says:

    They don’t have a custom list for the “interested in” (i.e. men or women) option.

    But you don’t have to check either one.

    I was thinking of giving up Facebook for Lent. I’m thinking I should just quit…but it’s where I keep up with a lot that’s happening in the Catholic world. Sigh.

  49. Giuseppe says:

    @Orthodoxchick, I am happy to ignore all Gender Identity Disorder cases, as the causes are murky and the treatments are bad in every direction. But the intersex are different. Again, I can happily mock the gender-nonconformists with the same zest as everyone here. It is a venial sin at worst, and a laudable effort at truth-telling in an evil world at best. But there are intersex people. God might have wanted them to be XX (females with everything working) and XY (males with everything working) and might have wanted them to have each XX woman desire an XY man and vice versa, but that is not the complete reality of life.

  50. disco says:

    Couple questions:

    1. Which is the trans male and which is the trans female?

    2. Are there seriously people in this world who talk about cisgender whathaveyou with a straight face? Like there really has to be a name for being born a man and believing you’re a man? But that’s the unusual way to live? Chopping parts of you off and messing around with whatever is left is normal?

  51. Giuseppe says:

    @Robtbrown. Thank you for the clarification. God created Adam and Eve to be perfect and immortal. This must have included mechanisms within their bodies to prevent genetic mutations. With the fall, these mechanisms were no longer made foolproof. Satan influenced the genome by wrecking God’s means of preserving immortality. So while Satan might not directly cause each mutation, the process of mutations could never have existed without Satan’s hand. Satan’s presence hovers over us in each cell division, just as God’s glorious creation hovers over each cell division.

  52. OrthodoxChick says:

    Giuseppe,

    All that’s happening is that there is now a cultural push to reclassify what used to be historically and scientifically referred to as hermaphrodite to now call it “intersex” instead. Yes, there are people who are born without a clearly defined gender and reproductive organs that may not have developed completely. In the old days, parents were asked to choose a gender for their child and surgeries would be done in childhood in an attempt to make the child have whichever gender the parents had chosen. Gender identity in such people is usually difficult and understandably so. But whether we refer to these people as hermaphrodites or intersex, the condition they are born with is not all that common. Of course such people should be treated with compassion, but they are not the people whom the present culture has in mind when coming up with a list like that provided by Facebook.

    The Facebook list above represents a cultural trend, not naturally occuring problems with chromosomes in utero.

  53. sisu says:

    I will not be satisfied until they include vegetable, animal, mineral, and all inter varieties – vegetable-animal transitional, vegetable-mineral transitional (like a couch potato fossilizing into stone), and so on. We should write letters and DEMAND it. Flood them with messages.
    It is so “human-biased” of them to exclude other kinds of “people”. No rest until they have 5000 choices of um, gender!

  54. robtbrown says:

    Giuseppe,

    Man was not created to live forever. Death is natural to him. First Man was given a supernatural gift (grace) by which the immortality of his soul was communicated to his body. This gift was lost because of the First Sin.

    Thus death and disease entered the world of man. With disease came those mutations that disorder man’s nature.

  55. Giuseppe says:

    @Orthodoxchick – I largely agree about the term intersex leaching into gender identity issues. But, reality is such that while God created them male/female, humans are not always male/female. And this very reality mocks binary thinking. Even in your example. What do you call someone who had a surgery, decided by parents, which effects a gender that is not congruent with the child hormonal and brain development? Even if it is not common, it is a living proof that God’s creation (as it exists, not as it was in Genesis 1 and the first few lines of Genesis 2) is binary.

    Then we expand to those with androgen insensitivity syndrome. (Especially those with a partial androgen insensitivity syndrome.) They look like girls and women until they experience a surge of hormones in adolescence. Then they are part female/part male. Or somewhat masculinized women. (Often lesbian, as most heavily testosterone-bearing creatures desire women, but, of course, not all.) Creation is a mess. Nature is cruel. God did great until mid-way through Chapter 2 in Genesis. (Redeemed, of course, in Luke 2, etc.)

  56. Giuseppe says:

    @Robtbrown – That is a very sophisticated view of creation. I actually love it. Can you give me a reference where I can read more? Biologically, man, like all creatures, was truly created to die, but I have struggled with this concept, as everyone I have met who believes in God and who is willing to talk about such things says that man was created to live forever but for the First Sin. I have long struggled with that, as it seems to have no link to reality.

    God created every virus, fungus, bacteria, and prion. Nothing exists which God did not create. Man consists of 9 bacterial cells for every 1 human cell. Did God create man with gastrointestinal and skin flora? Or was Adam microbially sterile? Eve? I cannot imagine that to be true, as the human cannot function with out microbiota. Yes the microbial flora often do man in. I have often wondered whether the Fall resulted in mass-colonization of humans with microbial flora which suddenly disabled genetic protection mechanisms. It is hard to figure out how Satan works.

    I appreciate your insights, Robtbrown.

  57. OrthodoxChick says:

    Giuseppe,

    As far as the theology of creation, I learned it the way that robtbrown just explained it. The way you’re describing it sounds like something…else. I’m not quite sure what though.

    In the case of people who are not born with a completely developed gender, I would call them whichever gender they wish to be called. I’m certainly not going to inspect them so I can decide for myself which gender they best resemble. But again, these people suffer a very legitimate cross. They represent such a minute minority of people that accomodations for their unique circumstance can and should be made. They are not merely following a cultural trend, and if they are suffering from a psychologically based gender identity, their gender identity disorder stems from an actual biological cause. Therefore, their cases have to be distinguished from and treated differently than gender identity cases which have no biological cause but are primarily psychological.

  58. robtbrown says:

    OrthodoxChick,

    I tend to agree. Whatever physiological aberrations that have existed in people, there were certain cultural parameters that oriented the behavior of those afflicted. Most of those parameters have now disappeared in the West.

    NB: Many years ago Carl Jung said that homosexuality would become more prominent.

  59. Nan says:

    @LeslieL, *we’re* not allowed to use the word “queer” but they are.

    I’m not on facebook and never have been.

  60. robtbrown says:

    Giuseppe says:

    @Robtbrown – That is a very sophisticated view of creation. I actually love it. Can you give me a reference where I can read more? Biologically, man, like all creatures, was truly created to die, but I have struggled with this concept, as everyone I have met who believes in God and who is willing to talk about such things says that man was created to live forever but for the First Sin. I have long struggled with that, as it seems to have no link to reality.

    It’s 99.9% St Thomas. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on Original Innocence. Someday, God willin’ and the crick don’t rise, I’ll get it published here in the US.

    BTW, it is Protestantism that says that what was lost in Original Sin was natural.

  61. Peggy R says:

    Orthodox Chick:

    Yeah, the toast and water guns might get a bit messy.

    And what is Brad when he gets costumed up for the big show?

    Glad to provide a good laugh. Thanks!

  62. JohnE says:

    They can still be “inclusive” yet have a much shorter list:
    Male
    Female
    Confused

  63. Giuseppe says:

    @Robtbrown – please publish. Mainstream Christianity (most of Protestantism and probably a vast majority of Catholics) assume that Adam was created without any concept of mortality, and that mortality entered with disobedience and the curses. This leads to the bizarre idea that somehow Eden could have had lots of thousand year old people. And that God never would have created Malthus, I suppose. Death is such a natural part of life, that acknowledging that this was part of God’s plan, suspended by grace, is illuminating.

  64. midwestmom says:

    BAM!

  65. Captain Peabody says:

    I can’t believe they don’t have “eunuch.” What about the growing Castrati Rights Community? The Testicular Liberation Front? Those LBGTQ-Normative monsters!

  66. If it gets to the point where I have to choose from among 58 or more different types of rest rooms when I need to use a bathroom, probably with indecipherable icons, I think that I will hold it until I get home, and I will drink even less water than I do now.

    Someone mentioned Monty Python. When reality becomes so completely outrageous, it’s hard for anything to be funny anymore simply by being over the top. I find the “bring out yer dead” sketch to be more prophetic than funny these days, for example.

  67. Gratias says:

    Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison is in the process of gender transition from male to female. Instead of pushing his inverted agenda he should have held on to the family jewels and saved himself much pain. Facebook should be ashamed of perverting Western a Civilization.

  68. Margaret says:

    What about the Unicorn-Identified Community? And for that matter, when are insurance companies going to start covering the necessary surgeries for those who seek to conform their outer selves with their inner unicorn identities? Sheesh…

  69. Imrahil says:

    Dear @Giuseppe,

    I won’t repeat what the dear @robtbrown said better than I would, but there’s one thing I’d like to point you to, because I think it explains it plainly:

    There stands a tree of life in Paradise.

    What is the tree of life for?

    Apparently for conferring immortality on a naturally mortal man.

    (By consequence, so much for the Creationist impetus of “God could not possibly create mortality”. – By which I do not mean to be propagandistic or name-calling. Favoring, I hope, unprejudiced science, I hope I value reasonable research in all directions. But when implications are drawn from theology and the particular theology in question is flawed, Protestant etc., theology, you have to, alas!, treat the outcome with caution.)

  70. JonPatrick says:

    The college from whence I received 2 of my degrees, a formerly conservative staid all-male engineering school, recently announced with great fanfare that they have appointed a new director for LGBTQIA. Apparently they are not on board with the entire 58 varieties of gender identification yet, perhaps I’d better write them to tell them to get with the program!

  71. mrshopey says:

    Does the inclusion of Gender Fluid mean that someone is not “born this way”?

  72. cdet1997 says:

    LGBT advocates will view this as a victory of sorts, but honestly, if I owned Facebook and wanted to satirize the gay movement, this is exactly what I would do.

  73. mrshopey says:

    cdet1997, I thought the same thing. Especially after watching the movie about Zuckerberg. That fits his humor.

  74. robtbrown says:

    Imrahil,

    1. St Thomas’ thought on Original Innocence and Original Sin is mostly based on Romans 5:12.

    2. By definition, matter is limited in Time and Space. Thus, it is built into the nature of corporeal things that they would at one time cease to exist.

    3. The Protestant Creationism you mention is little else than Fideism enhanced by a 5% Solution of stupidity. Unfortunately, most people think the choice is between Creationism and Evolution.

  75. Imrahil says:

    Dear @robtbrown, yes, I know (sort of, that is). Nevertheless thanks! Refreshing to hear that in this precise way. Indeed I only chimed in because I just wanted to put in my piece of mustard w.r.t. the Tree of Life.

    Dear @cdet1997, good point. Frankly I cannot even imagine occurrences such as reported by the dear @JonPatrick without the announcer either openly chuckling or heavily and visibly suppressing a chuckle.

  76. Kerry says:

    #59, ‘None of the Above’. #60, ‘All of the above’…

  77. robtbrown says:

    Gratias says:
    Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison is in the process of gender transition from male to female. Instead of pushing his inverted agenda he should have held on to the family jewels and saved himself much pain. Facebook should be ashamed of perverting Western a Civilization.>?

    See my comment above about Jung. Prescinding from the Psychoanalytic paraphernalia, the reason was that Industrialism was producing a more unisex culture–obviously, technology is geometrically increasing it.

    Friends in mental health told me the following: They had a patient (client) who planned to be changed surgically from male to female. But that wasn’t all. The client actually liked girls but considered himself a Lesbian.

  78. Palladio says:

    XY = Male

    XX = Female

    Well, as long as we’re being careful, even that’s incorrect. The first = man, the second = woman. The word “female” covers many species. A female dog is a bitch, not a woman. A goose is not a gander, and vice versa. Etc. It’s a common mistake, if ironic, given the hypersensitive nature Americans seemingly have at their oh so precious hyphenated identities. I never dreamed the identity politics in the 8os and 90s would lead to this, though highly intelligent observers with genuine competence predicted much of the same sort, such as Harvey C. Mansfield.

    Anybody for Children of God?

  79. Imrahil says:

    hm, trans male, trans* male – is that something like weakly convergent and weakly* convergent?

  80. Palladio says:

    I’d also strongly recommend a look at the career at the great Paul R. McHugh, M. D. He’s a brave, brilliant man, a true scientist and healer.

  81. BenedictineOblate says:

    If all on the liberal left would put as much time and effort into saving their own souls as they do into becoming something that is an outrage to the Almighty, this world would be a happier place. We need to pray for these people.

  82. Mariana2 says:

    I thought cis meant ci-devant…

    But, of course, I’m offended! Why no ‘Lock-step Papist Throwback’ category?!

    Or Talking Beast of Narnia?!

  83. Giuseppe says:

    @Imrahil – That does not make sense. The Eden tree is the tree of knowledge, not the tree of life. Eating the fruit does not confer immortality. Indeed, refraining from eating the fruit would have maintained immortality. Instead, Adam and Eve’s eating the fruit gave them knowledge of good and evil, which knowledge makes them even more likely to question authority and become disobedient. God punishes this with a hard life of labor, labor pains, and a death where one returns to dust. In a way, the fruit from the tree of knowledge is a slow poison when incorporated into the body and mind of man.

    The tree of life in Revelation is more likely symbolic of what Eden would have been like had man not fallen. Pope Benedict, I believe, once called the cross the true tree of life. (I shall look for the reference, but it was one of his most beautiful analogies.)

  84. APX says:

    IPadre,

    I always was rather miffed that FB discriminated against consecrated virgins’ relationship status and not having a “mystically espoused/betrothed” option.

  85. Imrahil says:

    Dear @Giuseppe,

    forgive me if that sounds condescending buut…

    I kindly suggest you read Gen 2,3 again.

    There are two trees, one that of Life, one that of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The second is forbidden and the disobedience was the Fall; the first is not forbidden. (Though after the Fall, God is described as being anxious lest Man could eat from the Tree of Life.)

    I will not go for an interpretation here. Indeed I’ll admit that some new theologians have silently suggested – not more – that the two trees could possibly be “in the ulterior sense” the same, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

    Primarily, though, the Trees are distinct, anyway. And before the Fall, Man was quite invited to eat from the Tree of Lufe, though not the other one.

    And according to St. Thomas, they would have needed to, its fruit being remedy against old age, material decay, death, and the like.

  86. Imrahil says:

    Addition to the parenthesis: this actually is the reason for expulsion from Paradise.

  87. JesusFreak84 says:

    So things are now so loony that even, “My chromosomal sex, determined at conception, not birth, is a-ok!” needs a special term? Cis sounds like a disease, rather than the normal, proper state of existence. Oh for…Why did God have to make that promise to Noah? *Wanders off grumbling like someone twice her age*

  88. OrthodoxChick says:

    robtbrown,

    “Friends in mental health told me the following: They had a patient (client) who planned to be changed surgically from male to female. But that wasn’t all. The client actually liked girls but considered himself a Lesbian.”

    See, that’s exactly the sort of person who could benefit from psychological therapy more than gender reassignment surgery and a synthetic hormonal assault on his endocrine sytem. But instead, a person suffering from gender identity disorder gets nothing but permissive parents in the form of psychiatrists, politicians, and now FB – who feel it is more humane, good, and just to leave people like this to remain in a disordered mental state, while waiting to have their reproductive organs lopped off and/or manufactured and attached.

    What a cruel, undignified, and sinful way to treat a fellow human being – let alone a child of God.

  89. yatzer says:

    I first heard of cis-sexual from a college student who was an “ally” of the LGBT. He seemed to think I would know what this means. I had to look it up. Apparently it is something being pushed by the sociology/psychology departments at colleges.

  90. Giuseppe says:

    @Imrahil – not condescending at all. Much appreciated. (I must be mindful of morning posts before I jump start my brain with coffee.)

  91. Imrahil says:

    Dear @Giuseppe,

    thank you for your kind answer! You’re very welcome.

  92. OrthodoxChick says:

    yatzer,

    Oh, yeah. Everyone needs an “ally”. That’s a straight person without a gender identity disorder who sympathizes and advocates for the LGBT cause. And since the APA has been an “ally” of the political left for decades now, it certainly is the pysch and social work departments on campus leading the charge.

  93. StJude says:

    two spirit? what the heck is that?

  94. robtbrown says:

    I am a sporadic and unenthusiastic user of Facebook. Now and then it has been handy to reconnect with old friends, but I’m stunned how many adults think it’s worthwhile to document their reactions to relatively private events: An Internet Wailing Wall.

    Even worse are the Facebook suggestions for likes (movies, books, etc.) More often than not, these suggestions are dull and offensive. Just because I like The Searchers doesn’t mean I like every John Wayne movie or every Western. Ditto for movies released when I was in my 20’s and 30’s.

  95. StJude says:

    Ya know… I am going with 2 spirit. I have gained some weight and that will be my new excuse…I’m not fat… I am eating for 2 spirits.

  96. Disc-Thrower says:

    This is a bit too much to take for one day. My friend, upon seeing the list, commented, ‘this is a bit like post-reformation protestantism’.

    Can you believe there is actually a wikia to explain all this?
    http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Gender_Wiki

  97. Nancy D. says:

    Cardinal Dolan should, out of charity for Mark Zuckerberg, let his friend know why such terms demean the inherent Dignity of the human person.

    http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/cardinal-dolans-home-run-al-smith-dinner

  98. robtbrown says:

    OrthodoxChick says,

    . . . that’s exactly the sort of person who could benefit from psychological therapy more than gender reassignment surgery and a synthetic hormonal assault on his endocrine system.

    Sexual Identity is very difficult to treat.

  99. Cathy says:

    Call me old-fashioned and out-dated, but I still can’t get over the introduction of the title Ms. for women.

  100. pannw says:

    @ Cathy, me neither. I get address labels in solicitations from charities all the time and I never use the ones with Ms. pannw…. I am particularly disappointed when they come from Catholic groups seeking donations. Just leave it off if you don’t know.

    As to this nonsense… God please clean up the mess!

  101. StJude says:

    I thought Ms. referred to a divorced woman.

  102. Imrahil says:

    Dear @Cathy,

    call me old-fashioned and outdated, but I still write “Frl.” (Fräulein that is) on post-cards to female friends.

    I think, though, that calling visibly young, unmarried women “Mrs.” (we have no “Ms.” here) is not common here either… unless of course those in authority positions. Or in business connexions perhaps.

  103. Imrahil says:

    Dear @St. Jude,

    hah, great!

    You know, like that one:

    A man goes into a bar and orders three beers. “Why three? You’re alone, after all. I don’t mind running thrice, you know”, says the waiter. “A custom of mine. I just moved in town, and of my two buddies, one works in India and one in Brazil. So, I’ll always drink three beers at once. One for me and one for each of them”, says the guest. “All right”, says the waiter.
    The guest comes now quite regularly, and always does the same thing. Of course the waiter does not ask again.
    Then, one day, he comes and orders “two beers!”. Says the waiter: “what? my very heartfelt condolences, what happened?”
    Says the guest: “Ah, cheer up. I had better explain.”
    “So?”
    “It’s just – Lent.”
    “Huh?”
    “You know, I abstain from beer in Lent. – But my friends do not.”

    Not really to the point, and dear @Fr Z you may well delete that, but … which is perhaps wrong because this kind of gender thing is dangerous… but I just can’t take it serious.

  104. mysteriumfidae says:

    iPadre said:
    Just a few that the left off the list:

    Celibate
    Consecrated Virgin
    Vowed Chastity
    Single for the sake of the Kingdom

    Eunuch (bizarre, but no more so than other things on the list)

    @iPadre, those would be changes to their relationship status not gender – being a priest does not make you less male! however as FB has 58 genders including ‘custom’ , it does seem odd that they only have 6 relationship status’: single, divorced, married, in a relationship, civil partnership, its complicated.

    Vowed, consecrated, ordained or otherwise committed celibates may not wish to identify as single, since it generally is interpreted to mean ‘single and looking’. they also might not wish to identify as married either since it would raise eyebrows if a priest or nun was suddenly was ‘married’. so they seem to generally just leave it blank. but why should they? surely if FB can have custom gender, they should also have custom relationship status! I have asked this question to FB but do not expect an answer . since they are probably too busy thinking of more permutations of gender to add to the list.

  105. The Masked Chicken says:

    The cis- and trans- designations as they are used in this faux-scientific labeling, is, simply put, idiocy. In chemistry, the cis- and trans- designations refer to the spatial relationship between two *similar* molecular types across a restrained carbon-carbon bond (either carbon-carbon double bond or a cyclic or closed carbon single bond system).

    What Zuckerberg has done is used the term improperly (or whomever came up with the misappropriation of the term). Diagramatically, one might say in carbon bonding:

    H….H
    |…..|
    C=C

    the two hydrogens (H) are cis to each other (both on the same side – above, in this case – the carbon, while in

    H
    |
    C = C
    ……..|
    ……..H

    they are trans (opposite sides of the carbons).

    What Zuckerberg (or whomever) was doing by using the term is to make the assertion:

    male…………..male
    |………………..|
    perception = body(assignment)

    is a cis-male. By the way, for those who made this up, cis is in small letters and italicized with a hyphen before the root word. The idea is, apparently, that one’s perception of one’s sex and the assignment of one’s sex are on the same side of the experience of personhood or more correctly, the value of perception and assignment are both, male.

    Now, the reason this is idiotic nomenclature is because the idea of some sort of difference between:

    male……………male
    |…………………|
    perception = body(assignment)

    and

    male
    |
    perception = body(assignment)
    …………………………………..|
    …………………………………male

    which represent cis-male and trans-male, respectively, makes no sense. since trans-male is, actually, the same as cis-female, if above the bond is meant to be yes and below to be no. The idea of cis and trans refers to two things of the same type, not binary opposites. This is just bad nomenclature, improperly borrowed from science.

    Why, oh, why, do we have to put up with such pseudo-science. I really don’t care what someone thinks they ought to be. Maybe, I think I should have had a sharper beak or have been able to fly like an eagle, but I can’t. I’m a chicken. These gender-nuts (and I mean that only as applied to the non-physiological sense, since real sex-assignment problems are a true medical condition, as opposed to a faux psychological issue) simply refuse to carry the cross they are given. If you are biological male, but perceive yourself as a female, you have my pity, but, for goodness sake, offer it up. Does no one see that contraception, abortion, and “gender,” issues are all part of the same disordered passions? They are all, in some ways, a part of a Cartesian split denying the integrity of the material and the immaterial in man. Just who is to say that one’s biology must be put into second-place compared to one’s mental perceptions? What if, in this instance, the body is a better commander than the mind? Likewise, I have been told from birth that I cannot walk through walls, but, might it be that I perceive that ability within myself? What would I be – a trans-walker? Why won’t people recognize my plight? :)

    Sometimes, perception is not reality. Some of the people simply refuse to accept this. The Church’s rule on sex assignment used to be simple : what you see is what you get. In truly ambiguous cases, a sex is assigned, rightly or wrongly (and in a truly ambiguous case, it is hard to see how there can be a true right or wrong!) and one had to live with it. It is a terrible Cross, but Cross it is. Modern medicine can do many things, but this is an area it is ill-equipped to meddle in beyond anything truly pathological. Sometimes, it is not science to the rescue. This is an example of, mostly, psychology, gaming the system. If this had stayed a true medical condition, a material medical condition, as opposed to a problem of the mind, no one would have been making much about this. This is just like the brouhaha over recovered memories – psychology has created a problem where none previously existed.

    Zuckerberg’s 58 flavors of a binary concept (male and female) certainly would be interesting in computer science. What about the number that is assigned to be a zero, but perceives itself to be a one? I am glad that computers do not behave like people, or else, Facebook would would be a site about a face that wished it had pages.

    Yes, I know about the defects due to Original Sin, but the Cross was given as a consolation for that, not a visit to a sex-reassignment surgeon.

    Maybe I’m just grumpy, today.

    The Chicken

  106. OrthodoxChick says:

    robtbrown,

    Certainly it is extremely difficult to treat. I’m not arguing that it’s an easy condition to address. I’m just of the opinion that it’s beginning to take on the appearance of a cultural trend since Chastity Bono became Chaz. Suddenly it’s now considered normal and healthy; a major, neccesary step in the journey to embrace your true inner self. That’s how it is now being pitched to us and Facebook is right there – ready to be both an “ally” and profiteer for the cause.

  107. acricketchirps says:

    They left out mine too: Trans Fat.

    [If ever a comment deserved it.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  108. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    Masked Chicken,

    I have not tried to look into who coined this novel ‘cis-‘ usage, and his/their explanation (if either are known), but your lucid explanation of its use (and that of ‘trans-‘) in chemistry makes it clear that chemistry fairly follows the older general spatial usage: ‘cis-‘ as ‘on this side of’, the opposite of ‘trans-‘ or ‘ultra-‘. It is interesting that in some Latin-derived usage, the ‘cis-‘ retains the sense ‘Rome-wards of’: ‘cisalpine’ and ‘cispadane’, for example.

    So, ‘ultramontanists’ might I suppose in a certain sense consider themselves ‘cisalpine’! (Curiously, ‘ultramontanus’ apparently had the sense ‘unfavorable to the Pope’, before it acquired its later sense!)

  109. Ben Kenobi says:

    The Chicken explained CIS vs TRANS enantiomers, and a bit about handidness as well. The concept when applied to gender politics is actually rather clever, I thought, when I first heard it. I’m surprised Facebook didn’t go the whole hog and attempt to shove everyone into the “CIS” bin, or eliminate the traditional gender distinctions and force people to use the made up structures. The point being that Reille is ‘transitioning’, and so to make him more comfortable – we shift reality to cater to delusions.

    I suspect we are not far off from Facebook dropping male and female. As for the ‘relationship’ parts, I simply leave it blank. Those who need to know, know, and those who do not, do not need to know.

    It does speak like Numenor when there are 56 options for gender, and only 6 for relationships.

  110. Susan M says:

    Oh, what to say whattosay…My Facebook page states that I am Billy Chickens (I have 2 friends) but even though my name indicates a male (rooster) of the chicken species, I am really a female human person, but Facebook has not included a gender identity for what I state I am on Facebook, therefore it’s offensive that my Facebook identity is not recognized by Facebook itself because of who my id thinks I am….or something. Does this make sense? Of course it does. To Me, at least, and isn’t that what it’s all about? My autonomous Self?

  111. The Masked Chicken says:

    Dear Billy Chicken,

    You wrote,

    “Oh, what to say whattosay…My Facebook page states that I am Billy Chickens (I have 2 friends) but even though my name indicates a male (rooster) of the chicken species, I am really a female human person, but Facebook has not included a gender identity for what I state I am on Facebook, therefore it’s offensive that my Facebook identity is not recognized by Facebook itself because of who my id thinks I am….or something.”

    Obviously, you are a trans-transhuman. You should have known, however, that we galliforms are a contradictory and strange species. Have you ever thought about donning a mask and cape? We could go on Church patrol for wayward Mass muggers and homily robbery. We could be the crime-fighting duo of MC/BC or, maybe, Bat-Chicken and The-Not-So-Boy Wonder. We could have wandering musicians following us around playing our theme song. It would put fear into the hearts of a Church musicians, everywhere.

    The Chicken

  112. majuscule says:

    Chicken crowed: We could have wandering musicians following us around playing our theme song. It would put fear into the hearts of a Church musicians, everywhere.

    As long as your theme song wasn’t a remake of a once popular cartoon jingle that was based on a hymn written by a former priest.

    Just sayin’…

  113. Susan M says:

    The Chicken Dance was written by a former priest??!! Deep deep in my trans-transhuman chicken id, I, or rather, Billy Chickens, really appreciate(s) that knowledge!

    Did you know that Billy thinks he is the rooster in the Bible that crowed at St Peter’s denial of Christ? He searches the Internet for Christ deniers, but then it’s difficult for Billy to be taken seriously. Chickens never are. Billy found a mask just a few months ago, however it was a human cat mask (another Facebook gender possibility of trans-humanity?) and is difficult to fit on Billy’s narrow chicken face.

    Billy Chickens

  114. The Masked Chicken says:

    Alas, I don’t use Facebook, so I cannot put up plans for the Chickenmobile. You can see the prototype, here:

    http://25.media.tumblr.com/6ef0c6b8a1b8bc4b1ceffc07f2c3fa43/tumblr_mgnp6o9hsI1s2yegdo1_400.gif

    Billy Chicken, have you done your homework, yet? No crime fighting for you, young lady. You must study, Elementary Fowlness, Bazooka Beaking, and ju-chicken-zu, before you are ready to go out on patrol.

    The Chicken

  115. Susan M says:

    MC! That is hilarious! Billy now can see that he has much studying/learning to do before joining chicken patrol. Shall he keep his fighting spurs?

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