gender brainstorming
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
- original offline: http://pownce.com/ijustine/notes/1551822/