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Girls on this forum

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d1ff1cul1010 (36)
Sooo.. Ive been self-teaching (more attempting?) coding specifically in the forms of c++, opengl and a few web languages and these bulletins have been incredibly helpful to me so far. Thanks a lot people!!

I'm only running into one problem.. When I try to address other users in a casual manner I tend to want to use "fellas" or "guys" or other implicative words and I use it in real life all the time to address parties of more than just males. It's a sign of appreciation and attempts to display a degree of comfort and appreciation.

Unfortunately I always end up second guessing my initial word choice.... Thinking I'm implying that only males can be coders or into computers, I end up erasing and rewriting it in a way that never satisfies me. Damn sexism and stereotypes ruining my language style! in other languages the plural male form often can encompass a party of only males or males and females (who came up with that one..)

What I'm saying is, I'm bored and decided to post this gripe. And to announce I will from now be using those words and not meaning any offense!!

Which got me thinking, how many females are there on these boards, has there been a poll or anything?? Curiousity
ResidentBiscuit (4459)
I don't think anyone really cares what gender a person is here. Just don't be offensive and nobody will care how you decide to talk.
Computergeek01 (5613)
@ OP: This site doesn't have the infestation of SJW's that you see on other boards. Some of us may be less then amicable regarding certain topics, but gender has never been one of them.

That being said you'll notice that, despite the nationality of this sites progenitor, the dominate language is English. In English the male form has always been the default\genderless form. When addressing a crowd of mixed genders, the male form is grammatically correct.
Albatross (4553)
ResidentBiscuit +1.

We don't ask, and unfortunately, whenever someone tells, it's often in the context of "hey, I have homework problems, BTW I'm a girl".

There is a stereotype about females having increased difficulty with hard logic, mathematics, and related fields, thus putting pressure on actual skilled female programmers on this board to stay quiet about their gender for fear of being quickly written off.

Still, despite this stereotype, there's an easy way around it. Conceal one's gender until one has acquired a reputation as a knowledgeable programmer, then announce it in a "are there any girls on this board?" thread (or write it in one's profile, since nobody checks those).

Given that most of our regulars have had this opportunity to do so long ago, I tend to think that at most, the number of female regulars on this board is quite small.

-Albatross
Peter87 (11234)
Computergeek01 wrote:
In English the male form has always been the default\genderless form.

So is it correct to refer to someone as "he" even though it might be a "she"? What if it's obvious someone is a female, can I still refer to her as a "he"? "I watched the queen on the tele. He looked almost asleep."

I have noticed that female is just male with a prefix: female (and the same with woman) so is it correct to consider a female a male because of that? A room with 2 boys and 1 girl is a room with 3 males and 1 female? I think not... :P

Albatross wrote:
There is a stereotype about females ...

Yeah and this is true for other things things as well (colour, religion, country, etc.). Best is probably to reveal as little as possible about oneself.
Little Bobby Tables (1079)
tbh i dont think anyone cares just as long you arent programming in visual basic
LB (13399)
There is "they":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ehrFk-gLk
But, unfortunately, "they" has a plural connotation and it is difficult to disambiguate between plural and singular in many cases. Saying "he/she" will also alienate some groups that don't fit in either category.
ResidentBiscuit (4459)
I use "they" to refer to a singular person quite a bit. It might not be technically correct usage, but people tend to understand what you mean in the given context.
LB (13399)
"They" is a genderless pronoun, and while it can be used as a singular pronoun, I personally live in a culture where it is more often considered (by default) to be a plural pronoun. I guess it depends on your culture.
Computergeek01 (5613)
@ Peter87: When referring to someone of an unknown gender, the male form is the default form in English.
Avilius (617)
@ Peter87

If you look at the way laws were defined (a while ago), you often see them using the word "he" instead of "they."

It's much less common now, though.
Duthomhas (13206)
Using "they" to refer to someone of unknown gender hurts my ears too, but it isn't anything new. People have been saying that much longer than your grandparents remember.

Guys don't usually understand the pressures social constructs put on women. Here's a recent news article that is revealing.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/etc/gap.html
(Sorry, that page has obnoxious popups. But nothing maliciously evil.)

Lowest0ne (1536)
the male form is the default form in English


I've never heard of a "default" before, and I can only think it is some sort male superiority relic ( default to "men" because everyone in this army/office is a man". Are you defaulting because someone/society told you to default? What was the perspective of that person/society? What was the intention behind creating a default?

Why was "man" default and not a new word created?

Damn sexism and stereotypes ruining my language style
Saying "he/she" will also alienate some groups that don't fit in either category.


This is a limit to the English language and it speaks to our society at large. We don't call people "its" because we recognize that value that is "personness". Oddly enough, the words we use to declare this value also defines the sex of that person.

It's actually almost insulting. Is that really what makes up my personness? It's okay to call me a "he" because you can tell by looking at me that I have a dick?

I don't like when people use the word "they" when they should be using a singular pronoun, but that is just a pet peeve of mine.

Here's an interesting article about women coders:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding
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imagirl (4)
im a girl. i wouldnt get offended if you said "guys"

@albatross i suck at programming lol
NoXzema (699)
Yeah, I tried using it instead of they... people didn't like that too much.
Duthomhas (13206)
When it matters, there is always indication of gender, and it is just plain rude to use the wrong word.

But when there is no obvious way to know -- "Oh your baby is so cute! How old is he?" -- "She's a girl." -- just stare cross-eyed and respond with something that puts his/her indignation in perspective -- "Oh, plainly obvious because she's completely wrapped up in a blue blanket."

That is, if someone wants to be offended at something you can't know, ignore him.

But, once you know, it is offensive to forget, if that makes sense.

[edit] And, often enough, its possible to make a pretty good guess.
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Computergeek01 (5613)
Lowest0ne said:
Why was "man" default and not a new word created?

Why is it that everyone of Haldeman's predictions from "The Forever War" are coming true faster then he predicted?

Duoas said:
That is, if someone wants to be offended at something you can't know, ignore him.

Well said, SJW's will look for any reason to take up a crusade against you. The best thing you can do for yourself is learn to spot it and ignore them.
disturbedfuel15 (88)
If you are referring to a single person, it is NEVER in good grammar to say THEY. It is one person; either say he or she.
I like how because there are a bunch of programmers here, terms like "default" are used.

@OP

This may help:

1
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switch (gender)
{
case female: 
use feminine form; break;
case groupAllFemale: 
use feminine form; break;
default: 
use masculine form;
}
Lowest0ne (1536)
Computergeek01 wrote:
Why is it that everyone of Haldeman's predictions from "The Forever War" are coming true faster then he predicted?


I've never heard of this, can you explain?
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