[Poll] What's the sex of your Pandora ? O_o


I can be a beauty too! *humph*


It's a thing, so I voted 3, but since the device is named after a female mythological character and therefore has a female name, 2 would be the logical choice when it comes to talking about it in sentences outside of the gender neutral English.
 
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I'll have to study the symbols posted by @dan3008 because I'm curious to know if many of them are just a joke, or there are actual people that really feels in the category...


I'll have also to merge all those categories with the "thing" gender :D


Then I'll update the poll :D
 
+1


La Pandora -> female


Not that it matters much in French. A chair, a frying pan are female as well.

I'd be interested in knowing if the gender of the words do have an impact on gender perception and vice-versa.


I know they do for jobs ("un cuisinier" is a chef, "une cuisinière" is a lunch lady, "directeur" is male, "secrétaire" is female), and some people argue that the "default male" (using male gender for adjectives when there are both male and female words and other similar grammatical rules that consider male as the default/primary) shapes the way we think about gender (it's already proven that language shapes thinking so it's possible), but I'd be interested to know if the gender or genderless objects has any kind of impact.
 
I'd be interested in knowing if the gender of the words do have an impact on gender perception and vice-versa.


I know they do for jobs ("un cuisinier" is a chef, "une cuisinière" is a lunch lady, "directeur" is male, "secrétaire" is female), and some people argue that the "default male" (using male gender for adjectives when there are both male and female words and other similar grammatical rules that consider male as the default/primary) shapes the way we think about gender (it's already proven that language shapes thinking so it's possible), but I'd be interested to know if the gender or genderless objects has any kind of impact.



In German; long, thick and hard objects are mostly female.


Carrot (die Karotte/Möhre), cucumber (die Gurke), eggplant (die Aubergine), banana (die Banane), pole (die Stange), rod (die Rute), etc...


I guess a deep sense of irony is part of our culture. ;)
 
I guess a deep sense of irony is part of our culture. ;)

My latin teacher often talked about such things, e.g. it's rather funny that sun and moon have exactly the opposite gender than in latin - while it's easy to guess why the latin moon is female and their sun is male, it's probably hard to understand why we switched the roles.


Fun fact: While the German "Fenster" originates from the latin "fenestra", the English "window" actually originates from the German "Windauge" (wind eye - 2k years ago the German tribes had no glass for their round windows, so the wind always blew through)
 
Dutch, when it comes to male/female is crippled.  it only has masculine "de" and genderless "het". (while south-African retains the female "die" (pronounced "dee") ). All Klumpen's examples are "de" in Dutch: de wortel/peen, de komkommer, de augergine, de stang, etc...
 
for diminutives, like het meisje (the little girl), het jongetje (the little boy), but it is de man, de vrouw, de meid, de jongen (the man/woman/girl/boy), de boom (the tree, pronounced bow-m). Het strand (the beach)
 
I'll have to study the symbols posted by @dan3008 because I'm curious to know if many of them are just a joke, or there are actual people that really feels in the category...


I'll have also to merge all those categories with the "thing" gender :D


Then I'll update the poll :D

Pm Mr and I can explain all of them. They are all real gender identities, and I know people in all of themp
 
At least in heavy engineering (ships, railway locomotives, etc), machines are always 'she'.


Does that apply to electronics?
 
Everything is an "it" to me.  Some humans seem to dislike it when I slip up and say it when referencing humans, especially babies.  I usually try to stick with how the person self identifies.

At least in heavy engineering (ships, railway locomotives, etc), machines are always 'she'.


Does that apply to electronics?

Sure.  I don't think there are rules about this, and if there are I don't care about the rules.
 
My latin teacher often talked about such things, e.g. it's rather funny that sun and moon have exactly the opposite gender than in latin - while it's easy to guess why the latin moon is female and their sun is male, it's probably hard to understand why we switched the roles.



I always tend to think of the sun as male and the moon as female,  but that's mostly down to Lewis Carroll, rather than grammatical gender.  (though now that I'm learning French it does help remember the latter in that language)


The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.


The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

Fun fact: While the German "Fenster" originates from the latin "fenestra", the English "window" actually originates from the German "Windauge" (wind eye - 2k years ago the German tribes had no glass for their round windows, so the wind always blew through)



Interesting.   :) 


One of the things that stuck me as funny while leaning French is that le garage is masculine, while la voiture (the car) is feminine.   It struck me that that particular pair would make more sense if the genders were the other way around. ;-)


-Neelix
 
In my head it's always the mythical Pandora, so she's a she. But I always get confused while talking and have to correct myself. And I wouldn't refer to my pandora as a she in English strangely enough. In German it makes more sense to me, but then again I do change fluidly between genders talking about the Pandora.
 
Female, it doesn't have enough power to be male.....although hypocritically, 2 of my 3 cars are also female and they are powerhouses.
 
Seems like the poll has disappeared after the forum change, all our hard earned statistics are lost forever, so many questions still remain unanswered....

The last time I have seen the graphic, the "it" was winning, but the "she" was slowing gaining terrain... anyway this could be the best time to start a newer, gender friendly poll :D

(I'm just thinking out how many choices to put there...)
 
Something I only learned recently, in English, if you are describing hair colour, blond / brunet is used for males and blonde and brunette is used for women. In modern English the distinction can be dropped, but either way, I did not previously think of English as having these sort of distinctions.

I have been learning French for about eight months (DuoLingo) and do find myself using sexist memory techniques to remember things, for example the men are working making important telephone calls (masculine telephone) whilst the women stay at home watching TV (feminine TV). The irony isn't lost on me that I watch more TV than my female partner and she makes more business phone calls than me.

In terms of my Pandora, I haven't really ever though if it having a gender.
 
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