http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9978875-36.html
I found this article interesting. I had paid attention to how gender was affected by media, but never how media was directly influenced by gender. This change to Facebook is so subtle that most of us probably didn't even realize it when it happen, but it addresses the notion of how much our gender is portrayed in our everyday life, even virtually.
I'm happy that facebook allows people to opt out of listing their gender on their profile. But I've noticed something problematic about the function that allows you to look at "friendships" between people. If you don't have a photo with the friend in question the default photo is a silhouette of two people. However, it is unclear how FB determines whether to use a silhouette of a man or a woman for a person who chooses not to list their gender. I've tried various combinations of friends who do not list their gender on their profiles and some have male silhouettes and others have female silhouettes. I almost feel like the seemingly arbitrary gender assignment is worse than if facebook used male silhouettes as the default.
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