gender news stories on Newser

Hey, Guys: Women Are Better People Than You

Matt Cantor — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:26:58 CDT

Women are the more moral sex, making choices in light of others' needs, a study suggests. Men, on the other hand, tend to focus on themselves, the Telegraph reports. The female approach "tends to produce better decisions," says the philosopher who conducted the study. But both sexes become more moral...

What It's Like to Have Gender Identity Disorder ... at Age 4

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:39:05 CST

Zach Avery was just three years old when he decided to live as a girl, wearing dresses and keeping his hair long. By four, he had become one of the youngest children in Britain to be diagnosed by NHS specialists with Gender Identity Disorder. "They told us that although he...

Gender-Bending Fish Swap Sexes in Harems

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:05:05 CST

Talk about a dynamic dating scene. The richly colored hawkfish of southern Japan can transform into a female or male depending on circumstances to improve their reproductive chances, New Scientist reports. Many marine animals change gender during a lifetime, but in the hawkfish, scientists have for the first time discovered...

Aussie Passports Get a Third Gender: X

Rob Quinn — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:40:54 CDT

Australians applying for new passports now have three gender options to choose from: Male, female, or "X." The government says the option for indeterminate gender has been added to remove discrimination against transgender people, some of whom had faced questioning and detention at airports, the AP reports. Applicants will be...

Google+ to Let Users Keep Gender Private

Matt Cantor — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:02:53 CDT

As Google works out its social-networking kinks, it has announced a new privacy setting: Google+ users will soon be able to keep their gender hidden from others. "Gender can be a sensitive topic, especially on the Internet," says a Google product manager in an online video. Starting this week users...

Bradley Manning Considered Switching His Gender

Matt Cantor — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:20:05 CDT

Bradley Manning “felt he was female," and looked into changing his gender, his former counselor tells New York . Though the suspected WikiLeaker “really wanted to do surgery,” the counselor says, “he was mostly afraid of being alone, being ostracized or somehow weird.” Manning used the Internet as a release: Online...

Gender-Neutral Pre-School Cans the Words Boy, Girl

Sarah Whitmire — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:43:28 CDT

Teachers don't say things like "him" or "her," or read fairy tales like Cinderella or Snow White at the gender-neutral Egalia pre-school in Sweden, and boys and girls play either in the play kitchen or with Legos, reports CNN . The Stockholm classroom uses the genderless pronoun “hen,” as opposed to...

Parents Won't Reveal Gender of 4-Month-Old

John Johnson — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:59:14 CDT

A Toronto couple is taking their beliefs about parenting and gender stereotypes to new heights: They refuse to tell people the gender of 4-month-old Storm, reports the Toronto Star . Even the kid's grandparents are in the dark. “In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am...

Fox News Nails J. Crew for Boy's Pink Polish

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:00:00 CDT

If there's one thing that Fox News cannot abide, it's pink nail polish on a little boy. Now he and the nation are apparently in for a world of psychological pain and years of therapy. And it's all because of a J. Crew email ad that featured a mom painting...