I just read an email from someone who wrote, "Google is god. Do not anger her." After reading it several times, I finally realized why it seemed wrong. Not because of the "god" part, but because, for me, Google is undeniably male.
This started me thinking about the gender of other inanimate objects in my life. My car is named Esmerelda because she has spunk & sass. I've always known she was a she. My previous car was male. My computers are always gender-less. I suspect my house is female, though I haven't pondered it much.
How do we come up with these ideas? Is it at all influenced by the way languages such as German and French assign gender to everything? In German, there are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Which gender is assigned to a word seems completely random to me. A little girl is neuter. Train station is masculine. And how do we explain words which switch gender according to the language spoken?
Do your possessions have gender? How do you know? Why do you know?
Posted by rachel at July 26, 2004 12:18 PM
Forgot to mention that all my shoes are female, so are my purses. The new scar on my thumb is male.
Posted by: Joy at July 26, 2004 10:11 PMJoy- I'm so sorry, it's all my fault.
Rachel- when children begin to recognize gender differences (around 3-4) it's common for them to assign gender to inanimate objects, based upon a varity of factors (modeled roles, parental attitudes, etc.).
Thanks, sissy for taking the blame. :)
Posted by: Joy at July 27, 2004 04:35 PMWell as a student of language, Rachel, and Spanish being god's preferred language, the mysteries are solved.
La computadora (computers are ALL female)
El automobile (cars are all male)
Lu pluma (my wonderful pens are female)
Los zapatos (shoes are male)
La casa (female house)
Los Gatos (my cats should be male, but I prefer to think of them as some other form of being who hasn't learned that their master might just kill them if they ever spill water or relieve themselves on my carpet)
Posted by: Jimmy at July 28, 2004 08:54 AMJoy, I love that you have a favorite pencil.
I've never really assigned gender to things except cars, which are always male.
My car, FAB, is female; my computer is female; my cell phone is male; my banana tree (deceased) was male; my favorite pencil is female; my telescope is female. Not sure on the reasoning behind this, but somehow I just know... I started to think that maybe things I really like are female and things that piss me off are male, but my computer makes me angry a lot and I loved my banana tree very much (he and I used to talk).
Posted by: Joy at July 26, 2004 10:08 PM