I love this article, thank you, Eevis! In my native language, Spanish, the man-default problem is gigantic, because everything in the language has a gender, and masculine forms are the default.
I've read on Twitter about a woman who also spoke up about using "guys", but she was told by a man that guys was gender-neutral. And she replied: "OK, how many guys have you slept with?"
Her response does not take context into account. Context is everything. The cause of so much friction on the internet these days is - I believe - due to people's reading of things WITHOUT context. The words themselves are only part of the intended message. The other main issue is the flattening of audiences. Content online is SO accessible that it often reaches people it wasn't strictly intended for - people who may, through no fault of their own - misinterpret what is being said.
It's almost like people WANT to immediately think the worst of people, and pick a fight. Stripping context, and deliberately interpreting something in a manner that you personally find offensive is a bizarre way to read things. It robs them of their full intended meaning, and upsets yourself and possibly others into the bargain.
I do know what you mean about Spanish though, as I'm learning it right now. For me though, the issue is clarity - for example, the questions "Do you have children? (¿Tienes hijos?)" and "Do you have sons? (¿Tienes hijos?)" are exactly the same. If I'm asked in a test to translate this - there are two equally correct answers. This type of confusion can sometimes be resolved by context, but not always
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I love this article, thank you, Eevis! In my native language, Spanish, the man-default problem is gigantic, because everything in the language has a gender, and masculine forms are the default.
I've read on Twitter about a woman who also spoke up about using "guys", but she was told by a man that guys was gender-neutral. And she replied: "OK, how many guys have you slept with?"
Her response does not take context into account. Context is everything. The cause of so much friction on the internet these days is - I believe - due to people's reading of things WITHOUT context. The words themselves are only part of the intended message. The other main issue is the flattening of audiences. Content online is SO accessible that it often reaches people it wasn't strictly intended for - people who may, through no fault of their own - misinterpret what is being said.
It's almost like people WANT to immediately think the worst of people, and pick a fight. Stripping context, and deliberately interpreting something in a manner that you personally find offensive is a bizarre way to read things. It robs them of their full intended meaning, and upsets yourself and possibly others into the bargain.
I do know what you mean about Spanish though, as I'm learning it right now. For me though, the issue is clarity - for example, the questions "Do you have children? (¿Tienes hijos?)" and "Do you have sons? (¿Tienes hijos?)" are exactly the same. If I'm asked in a test to translate this - there are two equally correct answers. This type of confusion can sometimes be resolved by context, but not always