3.1348 Computer Gender (164)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 3 May 90 16:37:25 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1348. Thursday, 3 May 1990.


(1) Date: Wed, 2 May 90 19:24 -0300 (7 lines)
From: DENNIS CINTRA LEITE <FGVSP@BRFapesp.BITNET>
Subject: RE: 3.1342 Computer Gender (134)

(2) Date: Wed, 2 May 90 20:56 EDT (16 lines)
From: Michel LENOBLE <LENOBLEM@UMTLVR.BITNET>
Subject: Computer gender in Dutch.

(3) Date: Wed, 2 May 90 19:56 EST (10 lines)
From: <MSWENSON@IUBACS>
Subject: RE: 3.1336 Computer Gender (139)

(4) Date: Wed, 02 May 90 20:30:19 EDT (46 lines)
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: the sex of computers

(5) Date: Thu, 03 May 90 00:10:05 EDT (35 lines)
From: jr3746@usma8.usma.edu (Jensen Richard Prof)
Subject: thoughts on gender

(6) Date: 03 May 90 10:49:00 bst (14 lines)
From: K.P.Donnelly%edinburgh.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Gender of computer

(7) Date: Thu, 03 May 90 08:03:47 EDT (5 lines)
From: ZAK@NIHCU
Subject: Computer Gender

(8) Date: Thu, 3 May 1990 14:30:22 EDT (24 lines)
From: Christian Boissonnas <CBY@CORNELLC>
Subject: Computer gender

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 May 90 19:24 -0300
From: DENNIS CINTRA LEITE <FGVSP@BRFapesp.BITNET>
Subject: RE: 3.1342 Computer Gender (134)

Since we have most western languages represented lets help complete the
list with portuguese. We refer to the computer as "o computador", that
is, a masculine noun: no ifs or buts. Why? Search me!
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: Wed, 2 May 90 20:56 EDT
From: Michel LENOBLE <LENOBLEM@UMTLVR.BITNET>
Subject: Computer gender in Dutch.

Dutch uses the word "computer" which is masculine and refers to it with
the "hij" masculine pronoun. Thus the computer is "de computer".

Michel Lenoble
Litterature Comparee
Universite de Montreal
C.P. 6128, Succ. "A"
MONTREAL (Quebec)
Canada - H3C 3J7
E-MAIL: lenoblem@cc.umontreal.ca
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------14----
Date: Wed, 2 May 90 19:56 EST
From: <MSWENSON@IUBACS>
Subject: RE: 3.1336 Computer Gender (139)

My computer has always been named TOM: Totally Obedient Moron.

Melinda Swenson
Indiana University
Bloomington IN
MSWENSON@IUBACS
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------56----
Date: Wed, 02 May 90 20:30:19 EDT
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: the sex of computers

The discussion about the sex of computers seems to involve three separate
things: the grammatical gender of the nouns in various languages;
people's use of pronouns, which reflects how they think about these
machines; and something else, which may not be really distinct from the
second but which I will call their metaphorical sex.

My understanding of linguistic theories of gender (which can hardly be
dignified by that term) is that its relation to the perceived sexual
identity is seldom if ever direct. I wonder, then, if grammatical
gender for a single thing across languages will tell us anything
interesting at all. Some linguist will perhaps enlighten us.

People's use of pronouns seems very interesting indeed. In what way is a
computer male or female to those who think of it these ways? Do the same
people tend to give the same sex both to small machines, such as PCs and
Macintoshes, and to mainframes? Do mainframe users, who in fact never
see the machine except through a terminal or microcomputer interface,
tend to regard its sex the same as systems programmers and others who
know the beasts directly? Are PCs and Macintoshes on the whole sexed the
same? Do human males and females tend to the same judgments? Many such
questions could be asked. Indeed, a questionnaire could be devised,
polished, then circulated by e-mail.

Now for "metaphorical sex". Whether this is the same as what people are
talking about as in the prior paragraph depends, I suppose, on how
deeply they are thinking. Is a computer a vessel to be filled
(metaphorically female), e.g. by a program and data, which cause certain
changes in the machine, producing output, etc.? Or is it an active
agent, a tool (metaphorically male) that enters its environment, makes
changes, etc.? Or is it both, and if so under what conditions does it
seem more of one than the other? Unfortunately we seem always bound to
confuse physical sex with metaphorical, and that confusion is likely to
fog up this argument right away. What I mean is something like the
duality of yin and yang in the Chinese tradition, or what C. G. Jung
referred to as animus and anima. These are principles that biological
males and females both have.

I continue to have the feeling that when we confront something new (like
the computer) and ask, what is this? the answers we give tell us a
considerable amount about ourselves.

Willard McCarty
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: Thu, 03 May 90 00:10:05 EDT
From: jr3746@usma8.usma.edu (Jensen Richard Prof)
Subject: thoughts on gender

from:
Jeffrey Lincoln
wins%"jj6899@usma8.usma.edu"

Interesting discussion, Sex and Computers - two very important things in
the human race. We are not going anywhere without them.

I infrequently hear a gender applied to either a particular hardware
device or software package, regardless of who assembled it (pun
intended, it applies to both hardware and software).

The most frequent description I have heard applied to computers is
"damned machine", usually accompanied by a string of nautical
invectives. I have worked in in a number of intense computer
environments, and infrequently hear the users refer to them with gender
terms. They do, however, seem to lend themselves to gender
stereotyping: cold and emotionless, boring, plodding, slow, stupid, a
frequent description when the machine refuses to digest you code and
instead digests your media (disk, for example). Now I must admit I have
overheard cries of joy and rapture, once accompanied by a female
description "God look at her go" as a group of expectant students
followed the systems report of progress on a run - of course it was as
successful run.

Generally they are not beautiful or even aesthetically pleasing, but
rather bland boxes. They do what we expect them to do in rather
predictable ways. Clearly I do not consider these attributes feminine.
On the other hand they can be fragile and temperamental.

Does it really matter? I don't thing they are very sexy anyway.
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: 03 May 90 10:49:00 bst
From: K.P.Donnelly%edinburgh.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Gender of computer

In Irish Gaelic
computer = riomhaire (masc.)
screen = sca/ilea/n (masc.)
printer = clo/do/ir (masc.) or printe/ir (masc.)
car = gluaistea/n (masc.) or carr (masc.)

and just to prove that there are feminine words
message = teachtaireacht (fem.)

The genders in these cases are pretty well determined by the noun
endings.
(7) --------------------------------------------------------------12----
Date: Thu, 03 May 90 08:03:47 EDT
From: ZAK@NIHCU
Subject: Computer Gender

My Macintosh is male. His name is Scotty.
(8) --------------------------------------------------------------37----
Date: Thu, 3 May 1990 14:30:22 EDT
From: Christian Boissonnas <CBY@CORNELLC>
Subject: Computer gender

The following is from a young humanist who happens to be programming for
a living at Cornell's Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and
Engineering:

Date Thu, 3 May 90 08:13:04 EDT
From roger@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Roger Boissonnas)
Subject humanist

Thanks for the newest issue of the Humanist discussion.

I've never thought of my computers having sexes, or personalities. I've
never even thought of my PROGRAMS having sexes, or personalities. They
have a style, perhaps, a "look and feel" the same way a novel has a style,
but I've never found myself being anthropomorphic towards the things.

...although I do berate them sometimes. But I do that sort of in fun,
'cause I realize the damn thing's not doing what I want, but just what I
tell it.