3.1336 Computer Gender (139)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 1 May 90 17:22:41 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1336. Tuesday, 1 May 1990.


(1) Date: Mon, 30 Apr 90 18:04:10 EDT (7 lines)
From: Peter Ian Kuniholm <MCG@CORNELLC>
Subject: computers (sex of)

(2) Date: 30 April 1990 19:52:34 CDT (23 lines)
From: "Michael Sperberg-McQueen <U35395@UICVM>
Subject: computers and pronouns

(3) Date: Mon, 30 Apr 90 23:53:01 EST (22 lines)
From: LNGDANAP@VM.UOGUELPH.CA
Subject: 3.1331 Computer Gender

(4) Date: Tue, 01 May 90 07:13:37 IST (6 lines)
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1331 Computer Gender (41)

(5) Date: Tue, 01 May 90 10:16:58 EDT (18 lines)
From: Peter Ian Kuniholm <MCG@CORNELLC>
Subject: footnote to computer gender(s)

(6) Date: Tue, 1 May 90 10:47:15 EDT (23 lines)
From: elli@harvunxw.BITNET (Elli Mylonas)
Subject: computer genders

(7) Date: Tue, 1 May 90 10:39 CST (25 lines)
From: <JULIEN@SASK>
Subject: sexe_page

(8) Date: Tue, 01 May 90 11:59 PDT (15 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 3.1331 Computer Gender (41)

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 90 18:04:10 EDT
From: Peter Ian Kuniholm <MCG@CORNELLC>
Subject: computers (sex of)

German Rechner is masculine. Turkish bilgi sayar has no gender at all,
there- by making Turkish quite trendy by today's nonsexist standards.
Peter Kuniholm
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------32----
Date: 30 April 1990 19:52:34 CDT
From: "Michael Sperberg-McQueen 312 996-2477 -2981" <U35395@UICVM>
Subject: computers and pronouns

Eric Johnson mentions a usage which puzzled me for quite a while -- the
use (apparently confined to systems programmers, and not universal even
there) of "he" or "she" rather than "it" when referring to a computer or
system. In my experience, though, when systems programmers refer to
"he" (as in: "well, think about it -- you hit ENTER, and the first
thing he wants to know is, did you change the record and does he need to
store the new version?"), they are more likely to be talking about a
program than about a computer. The underlying referent appears to be
the author of the program. When the author is known to have been a
woman, e.g. by initials in the source, the pronoun used in discussing
the program's behavior is (in my experience) "she".

In my experience, systems programmers referring to the machine they work
on almost always speak of "the system" or "the machine", occasionally of
"us" or the model number (as in "the system is down", "are we up yet?",
and "the 3081 died") but never of "the computer", at least not to refer
to the specific mainframe at their shop or the machine on their desk.

C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Systems, University of Illinois at Chicago
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 90 23:53:01 EST
From: LNGDANAP@VM.UOGUELPH.CA
Subject: 3.1331 Computer Gender

I too have heard programmers, of the "hacker" type, refer to the
computer as "he", which struck me as a deviation from the traditional
usage in English (especially rural usage): machinery, especially if
recalcitrant, is usually "she"...

As a very indirect comment on the above, when the Academie francaise
accepted the newly coined word "automobile" in French, near the end of
the last century, it assigned a male gender to the new word, based on
the gender of the latin root, as is the normal procedure in loan words
in French. By 1915, however, the gender had switched to feminine...

Staid dictionaries fail to give a reason for this switch, but legend has
it that because the automobile aroused such passion, and was so
unreliable in those days, needing much care and attention, it was
definitely *female* in its characteristics...

Dana Paramskas
University of Guelph
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------13----
Date: Tue, 01 May 90 07:13:37 IST
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1331 Computer Gender (41)

in hebrew computers are masculine, following a general derivational
pattern for tools.
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Tue, 01 May 90 10:16:58 EDT
From: Peter Ian Kuniholm <MCG@CORNELLC>
Subject: footnote to computer gender(s)

Somebody asked whether one refers to A computer or THE computer. This
probably goes back to when the speaker first started using
computers....back when there was only THE mainframe computer and when
calling it THE computer was clear to a ll who heard you. Now that
microcomputers are at least as common as electric t ypewriters used to
be [and I was the first member of the classics department at Cornell
other than the chairman to have an electric typewriter, AND the first
word-processor, AND the first micro], to refer to THE computer would be
confusi ng to say the least. "THE Computer" is what people in insurance
offices, or ba nks, or other so-called service organizations blame when
they have goofed and want to pass along the blame. "THE" also seems to
me to imply a certain lack o f understanding on the part of the speaker,
thereby making IT a convenient scap egoat for all our mistakes.

Other notes re. gender: Italian CALCOLATRICE is feminine; Mod. Greek O
KOMPIOU TEP is masculine. Honors are about even.

Peter Kuniholm/Cornell
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Tue, 1 May 90 10:47:15 EDT
From: elli@harvunxw.BITNET (Elli Mylonas)
Subject: computer genders

Modern Greek: upologistes (beta code: u(pologisth/s) masc
kompiouter (beta code: kompiou/ter) neut

Can't say much about the gender of the word that derives from the Greek
root--it is means exactly "computer" or "calculator" and is the usual
way of forming an agent noun. This is perhaps identical to the roomfuls
of "calculators" who sat and did math for weapons trajectories, etc,
before the analog and electronic varieties appeared.

The other word is formed from the Latin, via English, "computer". Many
loan words are neuter. However, one may hear it referred to in the
masculine, more colloquially.

>From hearing Greek-American, a fascinating and rather incomprehensible
language, i can say that often, the genders of words are determined not
by a sense of whether it should be masculine or feminine, but rather by
the type of Greek ending that works best phonetically with the English
root. This is a subjective observation only.

--Elli Mylonas, Managing Editor, Perseus Project
(7) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Tue, 1 May 90 10:39 CST
From: <JULIEN@SASK>
Subject: sexe_page

Le langage qui traite des ordinateurs en fran/c cais offre une
sexualit/'e int/'eressante. De fa/c con g/'en/'erale, on parle de la
"machine" (f), mais dans le sens p/'ejoratif que les humanistes
attribuent \`a la m\'ecanique. "Ordinateur" (m) a un sens noble,
puisqu'il s'agit de l'op\'eration tr\`es valoris\'ee de distinguer,
classifier, ordonner.

Le "moniteur" est masculin. Il va de pair avec l'ordinateur. Mais
l'imprimante est f\'eminine. D'ailleurs, elle est parfois \`a matrice
ou "matricielle", ce qui, Freud l'a dit, elle LA marque de la
f\'eminit\'e.... Remarquons aussi que c'est souvent elle, l'imprimante,
qui pose le plus de probl\`eme de compatibilit\'e avec le reste du
syst\`eme. On passe l\`a du sexu\'e au sexiste. La page plut\^ot que
l'\'cran? Un artisan ne change pas facilement d'outil. Il y a une
relation somatique avec l'objet qui est produit. Aussi une relation
psychologique: la page, on peut la prendre dans ses mains, la manipuler,
l'annoter, la d\'echirer. L'\'ecran fait "\'ecran" entre celui qui
\'ecrit et l'appropriation de son \'ecriture.

Y aurait-il quelque narcissisme \`a passer sa journ\'ee assis devant
cette (ou ces) fen\^etre(s) \`a se r\'efl\'echir les signes de sa
production?

Jacques Julien@SASK
(8) --------------------------------------------------------------180---
Date: Tue, 01 May 90 11:59 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 3.1331 Computer Gender (41)

It would have to be one hell of a dumb bunny female who would nowadays
take dictation from any keyboard. Neuter, like any tool should be.
No? was any typewriter ever gendered? Stroke the keys, but dont
imagine you are flying to distant goals. Of course, one has always
found that the machine is very dumb indeed: it demands you do things its
way and its way only, as programmed, ROM or whatever. No she or he was
ever programmed but the golem, and it was a monster without sex.
Frankenstein's creation was made a he, out of scraps, and we all know
that he wanted a she in the end, pore ting. Anyone who genders this
contraption ought to be sent back to kindergarten. Kessler here. More
silliness. Should language have been given to Calibans to ask such
questions?