Male or Female?
A language instructor was explaining to her class
that French nouns, unlike their English
counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
Things like 'chalk' or 'pencil,' she described, would have a gender
association although in English these words were neutral.
Puzzled, one student raised his hand and asked, "What gender
is a computer?"
The teacher wasn't certain which it was, and so divided the class
into two groups and asked them to decide if a computer should be masculine
or feminine. One group was comprised of the women in the class, and
the other, of men. Both groups were asked to give four reasons for
their recommendation.
The group of women concluded that computers should be referred to in
the masculine gender because:
- In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
- They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
- They are supposed to help you solve your problems, but half the
time they ARE the problem.
- As soon as you commit to one, you realize that, if you had waited
a little longer, you could have had a better model.
The men, on the other hand, decided that computers should definitely
be referred to in the feminine gender because:
- No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
- The native language they use to communicate with other computers
is incomprehensible to everyone else.
- Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for
later retrieval.
- As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending
half your paycheck on accessories for it.
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