Being Gendered Correctly

[Kimmy_Dee]

I'm not saying for it to be "policy". I'm asking those that I can to stop assuming everyone is a guy. It's a pretty simple request and all I see are excuses for people who don't want to change their behavior.

Slightly off topic, but is it offensive to girls when people refer to them as "guys"? Context: "I'm gonna hang out with the guys!" Where in this case, "guys" refer to a group of people with male and female members. Does being lumped into the "guys" catch-all offend the ladies? I'm legitimately curious.

Most of us don't mind but if someone asks you not to refer to them as a guy then it's good to respect that request.

Also also "he" is not generic and trying to make it take that role was historical sexism.

[Tharian]

Also also "he" is not generic and trying to make it take that role was historical sexism.

If it is historical sexism as you suggest, then why is the earliest example of it being suggested for that purpose in the published work of a woman?

[Kimmy_Dee]

If it is historical sexism as you suggest, then why is the earliest example of it being suggested for that purpose in the published work of a woman?

Because it is common for women to internalize sexism, act on it, and even go so far as to defend it. Because when you live in a horridly sexist society, that sorta stuff rubs off on you in lots of ways.

[Tharian]

Because it is common for women to internalize sexism, act on it, and even go so far as to defend it. Because when you live in a horridly sexist society, that sorta stuff rubs off on you in lots of ways.

OMFG, did you really just say that?

First off, learn your history. The Late 18th Century Europe and America were not a "Horridly Sexist Society" by any means of the definition. For that you would have wanted to go all the way back to the 1690's Salem, Massachusetts or the Modern Day Arab Countries that have Sharia Law instituted in them.

In fact, by the 18th to 19th Century, the Women tended to have more power than the Men in their individual relationships. Not to mention that one of the most powerful Monarch's in the entirety of British History ascended to the Throne by 1837, and Queen Victoria just happens to have been a woman.

And just so we are clear, the Salem Witch Trials were instigated by a group of Teenage (or younger) Girls that simply wanted people to notice them. Unfortunately hysteria happened and things went south.

[Pandastirfry]

OMFG, did you really just say that?

First off, learn your history. The Late 18th Century Europe and America were not a "Horridly Sexist Society" by any means of the definition. For that you would have wanted to go all the way back to the 1690's Salem, Massachusetts or the Modern Day Arab Countries that have Sharia Law instituted in them.

In fact, by the 18th to 19th Century, the Women tended to have more power than the Men in their individual relationships. Not to mention that one of the most powerful Monarch's in the entirety of British History ascended to the Throne by 1837, and Queen Victoria just happens to have been a woman.

Just gonna throw this out there, the Salem witch trials were more about class warfare and petty revenge than "sexism". Whole families were accused of witchcraft (and not even kidding, two dogs, a cow, a pig and a monkey, they were all executed. Talk about a... Kangaroo court...)

[Tharian]

Just gonna throw this out there, the Salem witch trials were more about class warfare and petty revenge than "sexism". Whole families were accused of witchcraft (and not even kidding, two dogs, a cow, a pig and a monkey, they were all executed. Talk about a... Kangaroo court...)

This is absolutely true, but it was all started because a handful of girls took a prank a little too far and the people in power believed their prank to be real. It actually says a lot more about the power of myth within a close nit community of highly devout Christians than it does about actual class warfare or sexism. That doesn't change the fact that for the first month or so the vast majority of the victims were females.

Nor does it change the fact that the thing that actually ended the Salem Witch Trials was that an overzealous court actually accused the then Governor of Massachusetts' wife of witchcraft.

[Gilraen]

I'm not saying for it to be "policy". I'm asking those that I can to stop assuming everyone is a guy. It's a pretty simple request and all I see are excuses for people who don't want to change their behavior.

I don't assume anything because I don't refer to anyone by anything other than their name. It spares me from having to explain to others who I'm talking about and it's just polite. Now, I do lapse sometimes and break out the pronouns but they'd have to be real idiots or flat out rude cusses for that to happen. You know, don't want to act like a person I won't treat them as one. But that's not the crux of the discussion here, is it.