gender brainstorming

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Just some loosely collected thoughts on how to represent gender.

sex and gender identity

Gender as seen in the gender-examples and gender-formats typically has two components, sex, which is a biological indicator, and gender identity, which is social/cultural/personal.

A simple proposal is to use a two-part property: 1) a small taxonomy for sex, and 2) a freeform field for gender, e.g.

  • sex: M(ale) F(emale) O(ther) N(one or Not applicable), or U(nknown)
  • gender-identity: string

gender property

A shorthand or compound property "gender" could be created to represent both, while leaving the freedom of personal expression.

A compound "gender" property could be used like this (using the "Dude" alternative gender label from Pownce/Digg in the gender-examples page).

<span class="gender">
 <span class="gender-identity">Dude</span>
 (<span class="sex">male</span>)
</span>

genealogy

Gender could be represented with a genealogical microformat, but that seems like overkill.

tags

You could use tags/categories to tag people's hCards with their gender, "male", "female", or any other tag you feel is appropriate. See gender identity for more on the topic.

See also vcard-suggestions#Gender.

external brainstorms

see also