Other Gender and strength of impact

The Great Sage

The Storyteller
Controversial topic today!

Do you think that certain gendered roles have a stronger impact than their counterpart? (is a fairy godmother more impactful than a fairy godfather (even if he makes you an offer you can't refuse))

Do you think that modern adaptations of stories that genderbend pivotal characters are making a mistake?

Do you think that certain roles in society are best described with synecdoche using a specific gender?
 
In terms of the last point, I think most synecdoche are already neutral-gender! E.g. Doctor, Actor, Teacher. Some of them however I feel need to be changed to be gender-neutral, e.g. Fireman to Firefighter, Policeman to Police.
 
Do you think that certain gendered roles have a stronger impact than their counterpart? (is a fairy godmother more impactful than a fairy godfather (even if he makes you an offer you can't refuse))
Yes. 'Mother Earth' for example, gives a stronger vibe of life-supporting figure compared to 'Father Earth'.

Do you think that modern adaptations of stories that genderbend pivotal characters are making a mistake?
This depends more on the executions really.

Do you think that certain roles in society are best described with synecdoche using a specific gender?
I prefer something more neutral, just for convenience. Here in Indonesia some words do have a bit of difference related to gender (ex. 'karyawan' means 'male employee' and 'karyawati' means 'female employee') but honestly most people just treat it as if the male one is the default for both gender and only use the female one when they really want to specify to female. If you call a female employee 'karyawan' she wouldn't be offended. Though this might be because 'wan' by itself doesn't means anything while 'man' in english really refers to male.
 
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Controversial topic today!

Do you think that certain gendered roles have a stronger impact than their counterpart? (is a fairy godmother more impactful than a fairy godfather (even if he makes you an offer you can't refuse))

Do you think that modern adaptations of stories that genderbend pivotal characters are making a mistake?

Do you think that certain roles in society are best described with synecdoche using a specific gender?
Short answer, yes. Certain genders have more impact in certain roles. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

For example, it's generally seen as more impressive when a man shows vulnerability and compassion. Or when a woman fights back. If a man fights, it's seen as a typical response, and if they don't fight, they might be seen as weak. While if a woman shows restraint and compassion it may be seen as the regular response.

I definitely didn't word it well, so hopefully my meaning is understood.
 
I definitely didn't word it well, so hopefully my meaning is understood.
I don't think that's true, I believe you made yourself clear.

Do you think it's unfortunate? Are there no redeeming qualities to a world where different genders represent different things? Would a world where there were no genders be objectively better given that all people would be free from the yoke of gender-biased expectations?
 
I don't think that's true, I believe you made yourself clear.

Do you think it's unfortunate? Are there no redeeming qualities to a world where different genders represent different things? Would a world where there were no genders be objectively better given that all people would be free from the yoke of gender-biased expectations?
A well said question. I mean it's unfortunate because people are often thought of as lesser if their gender doesn't match with a certain role, even if they are more than qualified. The unfortunate part is prejudice. Though I think our differences are wonderful and should be celebrated.
 
I agree that differences are wonderful. I don't think a world free of gender prejudice would be any better, we will simply shift the center of our expectation to something else, like race, ethnic, wealth, intelligent, body size and many more. Prejudices, stereotypes, expectations are born from difference. Erasing those things means erasing difference, and if everyone is the same clear cut similar human-looking thing that can do the same exact things... well, that's a dull world. Though, it does sounds like a great premise for a story about artificial society.
 
I agree that differences are wonderful. I don't think a world free of gender prejudice would be any better, we will simply shift the center of our expectation to something else, like race, ethnic, wealth, intelligent, body size and many more. Prejudices, stereotypes, expectations are born from difference. Erasing those things means erasing difference, and if everyone is the same clear cut similar human-looking thing that can do the same exact things... well, that's a dull world. Though, it does sounds like a great premise for a story about artificial society.
I disagree. Prejudice, pre-judging, comes from fear and ignorance. It is fixed with love and education. There will always be subconscious prejudice because our brains like to make things fit neatly and have an answer to every problem. But we don't need to let things like that drive how we treat others.

As the saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover.
 
I disagree. Prejudice, pre-judging, comes from fear and ignorance. It is fixed with love and education. There will always be subconscious prejudice because our brains like to make things fit neatly and have an answer to every problem. But we don't need to let things like that drive how we treat others.

As the saying goes, don't judge a book by it's cover.
Is there difference between prejudice and expectation?
 
Is there difference between prejudice and expectation?
Yes. Prejudice is a judgement on someone solely from their being a part of a particular group. Like their skin color, gender, religion or even the type of car they drive.

An expectation isn't based on someone's belonging to a particular group. Like, if you were to go on a first date and expected them to be a certain way. It isn't prejudice unless the only reason you expect that is because of, for example, their skin color or gender, as opposed to your previous interactions with them, or your own personal expectation for what you want in a relationship.

There is definitely some overlap, but still different. Prejudice is bad, even if the thing you're prejudiced about is a seemingly positive thing.
 
1, Not really.

2. I think it's really unnecessary to genderbend important characters, especially if there's already decent characters of the opposite sex. For example, Link and Mario do not need to be female - the Zelda and Mario franchises already have plenty of female characters. (And for the people complaining about Zelda and Peach being kidnapped...Zelda's been given more active roles in more recent Zelda games. Yeah, Peach does get kidnapped a lot, but the other female characters in the franchise don't.)

3. Depends. In Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish, it still is the norm to use gender-specific job titles. I feel like it's not necessary in English because English has very little grammatical gender compared to other languages in Europe. I still use some gender-specific terms - I still use actress, for example. I think it makes more sense if the image you get is different depending on the sex. For example, the words priest and priestess bring up different images - priest is associated with Christianity while priestess is associated with pagan religions.
 
I've always felt the concept of gender neutrality is a very anglo-centric thing, to be honest. We native English speakers should honestly be proud for how gender neutral our language is already. We're pretty unique out of all the Latin languages for that. Languages like French and Spanish have gendered versions of "the", for crying out loud! Imagine trying to navigate a conversation and having to avoid the most common word in language because there's no adequate neutral term for it. Things like "latinx" have always come off as poor in taste to me; they feel like a dominant culture forcing its norms onto another, which is the very thing we're trying to stop doing!
 
I've always felt the concept of gender neutrality is a very anglo-centric thing, to be honest. We native English speakers should honestly be proud for how gender neutral our language is already. We're pretty unique out of all the Latin languages for that. Languages like French and Spanish have gendered versions of "the", for crying out loud! Imagine trying to navigate a conversation and having to avoid the most common word in language because there's no adequate neutral term for it. Things like "latinx" have always come off as poor in taste to me; they feel like a dominant culture forcing its norms onto another, which is the very thing we're trying to stop doing!
Yeah, I think it's more complex than that. I mean, the latinx thing is often used by Hispanic Americans, and they definitely have the right to refer to themselves like that. Pushing it onto Latin Americans who don't live in the US and don't like it is wrong, obviously, but I am not sure whether that is what is happening.

From my POV, as a native speaker of a language that is so gendered that even Romance languages would turn green with envy, I don't think that gender neutrality is that anglo-centric, either. It does bother people that there aren't easy ways of incorporating it.
 
Yeah, I think it's more complex than that. I mean, the latinx thing is often used by Hispanic Americans, and they definitely have the right to refer to themselves like that. Pushing it onto Latin Americans who don't live in the US and don't like it is wrong, obviously, but I am not sure whether that is what is happening.

From my POV, as a native speaker of a language that is so gendered that even Romance languages would turn green with envy, I don't think that gender neutrality is that anglo-centric, either. It does bother people that there aren't easy ways of incorporating it.
I am interested to hear you have such a position. I've got no quarrel with it if people are alright with it, but I have witnessed a good number of such people state their distaste with it.

And the United States does have a long history of pushing things onto Latin nations that they don't like, lol.
 
I am interested to hear you have such a position. I've got no quarrel with it if people are alright with it, but I have witnessed a good number of such people state their distaste with it.

And the United States does have a long history of pushing things onto Latin nations that they don't like, lol.
Oh yeah, I don't doubt that the US pushes things onto Latin nations, but I am not all that certain whether that is true with gender neutrality in particular. Are there some sources that would point to that conclusion?

I do know that some Latin people who don't like that it is basically unpronounceable to Spanish speakers and prefer Latine as a result, though. Then again, I have also met Hispanic Americans who don't have a single problem with latinx. They aren't a monolith, which isn't surprising.
 
Oh yeah, I don't doubt that the US pushes things onto Latin nations, but I am not all that certain whether that is true with gender neutrality in particular. Are there some sources that would point to that conclusion?

I do know that some Latin people who don't like that it is basically unpronounceable to Spanish speakers and prefer Latine as a result, though. Then again, I have also met Hispanic Americans who don't have a single problem with latinx. They aren't a monolith, which isn't surprising.
Latine. Gotta say, that sounds a lot better. Glad to see people are at least trying to make these concepts more fitting to their cultures. This was the first I've heard of such a thing.
 
Yeah, I think it's more complex than that. I mean, the latinx thing is often used by Hispanic Americans, and they definitely have the right to refer to themselves like that. Pushing it onto Latin Americans who don't live in the US and don't like it is wrong, obviously, but I am not sure whether that is what is happening.

From my POV, as a native speaker of a language that is so gendered that even Romance languages would turn green with envy, I don't think that gender neutrality is that anglo-centric, either. It does bother people that there aren't easy ways of incorporating it.
Actually, most Hispanic people in the US don't use the term Latinx, and some of them actually hate the term. I live in an area that's about 20 percent Hispanic and I've never heard anyone around here use the world Latinx. They use Hispanic, Latino/Latina, Spanish, or whatever country they come from (i.e. Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, etc.). I also have a few Hispanic people in my family (such as my dad's cousin's wife who is Colombian and my dad's stepsister's husband who is Chilean) and they don't use the term either. I've met Hispanics who live in Latin America online and none of them use Latinx.

Many languages have no grammatical gender. Turkish has no grammatical gender, and neither do Hungarian, Finnish, Persian, Armenian, Korean, Tagalog, Nahuatl, and Malagasy, as well as plenty of others.
 
Actually, most Hispanic people in the US don't use the term Latinx, and some of them actually hate the term. I live in an area that's about 20 percent Hispanic and I've never heard anyone around here use the world Latinx. I've met who live in Latin American online and none of them use Latinx.

Many languages have no grammatical gender. Turkish has no grammatical gender, and neither do Hungarian, Finnish, Persian, Armenian, Korean, Tagalog, Nahuatl, and Malagasy, as well as plenty of others.
That's fair! My experiences are limited, as I've only interacted with the demographic on the internet.
 

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