Facebook, Is that a him or a her?

Facebook, one of the leading social-networking sites on the site, is fed up with trying to create new words for their users. Not the average user, but users that haven’t picked which gender they are yet. I know the question you might be asking yourself, “How do you not know your gender?” Well this question falls the category for newly gendered people or people that question there own gender (transsexuals).

In recent weeks, the decision to make gender declaration mandatory has been passed and within weeks, Facebook users will have to declare which gender they are (or think they are). The problem with genderless users are that Facebook announces what people do when they do it. “Jeff has blanked. He is very happy.” When somebody is genderless on Facebook, they have to use they instead of he or she. The problem doesn’t seem very apparent now, but when used in a different sentence, the problem is obvious. “Jeff hates himself.” In the English language, there is no non-gendered word for himself or herself. So far, Facebook has been using themself. Themself is not a word, hence the problem.

My question is, “Does this really have relevance?” I mean shouldn’t we just accept people that do not wish to disclose there gender. I do not feel hurt by Facebook using “themself” and neither should most people.

Sound off and let your voice be heard.