livejournal decided it was time to add to the genderfail rolling around right now and so it's about to make gender a required field upon account creation (not sure about existing accounts), plus it's going to take away the "unspecified" option and force users to choose whether they are "male" or "female". which is obviously a big deal to the large number of users and potential users who do not identify within the gender binary for whatever reason. while you won't have to make the information public, you will still be forced to choose.

this is pretty obviously being done so lj can offer more targeted personal info to advertisers -- which of course means that anyone listing "female" is likely to be getting ads about dieting, and those listing "male" will probably be getting even more of those "get ripped in four weeks without exercising!" ads i keep seeing everywhere.

synecdochic has a good post on the whole thing over on dreamwidth: http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html

meanwhile, the code change is likely to go into effect very soon (thursday or maybe thursday next, i think?), so spread the word and send livejournal (polite!) feedback here.

meanwhile, this all reminds me i actually have a journal at dreamwidth. which i should probably start using. hmmmmm.

hey everyone, i'm sure there's lots of fun to be had with the most recent wank about victoria bitter/thanfiction/etc, but if anyone tries to justify using pronouns like "she", "he/she", "it", etc when talking about him, then i'm sure you wouldn't mind if i took you off of my friends-list.

of course, and i actually say this quite confidently, i have a great friends-list, so i would never expect that anyway. ilu guys.

this probably doesn't need to be said to anyone who will actually read it, but i thought i'd make it clear nontheless. statements that are inappropriate in all circumstances:

Also, while it's not exactly on the subject, I'd be unwilling to accept a Doctor that is non-Caucasian appearing. And no, this is not due to any latent racist views on my part. I just don't see the character working that way.

I don't want a black Doctor. Because I want to fancy him and I don't really find black men attractive.

saying the doctor can't be non-white because the character doesn't "work that way"? racist. justifying not wanting a black doctor because you don't find black men attractive? racist. no, this is not up for debate. this should be clear, and yet apparently isn't to some people. mentioning that statements like this are racist is not an attack against whoever might have said it. it's a statement of fact. if someone says something racist they can own up to the racism of their statement or try and explain it away, it doesn't change facts.

i was much wordier in other places but ya'll shouldn't need this to be explained to you so i think we're good.