I mean, even without bringing gender identity into it, I can see historically WHY images were tagged mare and “stallion”, and how those became female and male when EQG arrived, and how that got twisty when OCs were neither or combinations of both, and ramped up even harder when Big Mac was both in an actual canonical episode.
I’m LGBTQ enough myself that I’d like there to be a happy solution to all of this, but there’s also a legacy of how things are done here that have to be taken into account and respected.
Personally, I’m more comfortable with how
FurBooru handles these tag, but even then it’s more about actions in the image than identity.
And I don’t know how that approach to tagging would fly here on this site (aside from the examples of past attempts to change all of this) or even how to open that conversation without spending a few weeks or even months reading back through the history of
the discussions of these tags, and tags that depend on them that have happened here in the past.
For me, we are where we are with tagging on this site because it worked and made it possible to reach this point. And where we are is pretty functional, even if not everyone likes it.
So, whatever happens, we should at least do no harm.
And, for me, that starts with not removing the intersex tag(s) off of safe images without a lot of thoughtful discussion with the tagging wonks here.
Seriously - I don’t remove those kinds of tags without clearing it with at least one of our senior tagging folks. Because those tags can really cause drama when done wrong.
And just as images like this are safe,solo, and also lesbian because there’s a pride flag, maybe there’s perfectly good reasons for people tagging an image safe, futa (even though I don’t see it myself).
But, another caveat that hasn’t been mentioned is that futa is considered by many, myself included, to be a offensive gender slur, and while in general on this site where tagging is concerned I understand it is not meant as such in practical use - I really am not a fan of making any changes that would make futa a preferred tag over a tag like intersex.
And, yes, I know of futa’s origin as ふたなり - but that word is from a culture in which it is extremely common for deities to not have a fixed or determinable gender, and androgynous Bodhisattva are not only normal, but canon, and in which the term is almost never derogatory and can even be very respectful and sacred.
But, as a part of its move to American use, it lost the sense of androgyny, and now is often used as a less offensive form of “Dick girl” or “trap” - and far too often as an intentionally offensive term to tag transexuals.
So, for me, futa is not a tag that I’m interested in helping to make more official in any form.
So … yeah. There’s some legacy and weight to the current state of the futa tag.
And, that’s just the highlights. There’s lots more if you search at the subject level.
So, I’m fine with the tag as it stands on this site, given its history. But would love to see a better solution.
But on this site, I believe that accomplishing what you’re talking about would necessitate adding the concept of tagging gender identity, independent of visual facts of an image such as acts or explicit information about what’s in the character’s pants.
And that is … fraught. I am not sure even a wall of text would scratch what I think and feel about doing that.
