I’m not saying there are no female animal characters. I’m saying they is not even close to a 50-50 representation.

It was a school of mostly Irish Catholics that picked the mascot. I never knew the Indians were at one time comprised of mostly American Indians.

Attendance then and even somewhat to this day is overwhelming Irish Catholic. My brother-in-law works there and mocks it as a breeding ground for red hair.

You’d be amazed at children’s books. Animals are all anthropomorphized, mostly assumed to be male. And then kids mimic that (or at least many do) when they talk/ask about animals IRL. I hope you have a nice plot on that hill. ;)

Is it a hill to die on? I sure don’t think so. I don’t mind it so much on the list of language habits to shed eventually. I try really hard to mix up the assumed gender of animals for my daughter. It’s crazy how habitual it is for us to point to a non-dimorphic animal and assume it’s male. And bees we see, all…

Eh, I get why it’s hard to change and that it’s benign in intention. However, I absolutely think it’s a reflection of patriarchy. If it wasn’t, calling a group of men or mixed company ‘Gals’ wouldn’t be strange and/or offensive. Our language makes an assumption that male is the default. I have a toddler girl and you…

Hmmmm...not sure you read my post. I said am making a concerted effort now to not use ‘guys’ in groups that include womyn. I have stated elsewhere on this thread:

While true, probably against the spirit of un-misogynizing language. :)

Yeah, there are the mechanics of language and then the reasons for changing (feminism, non-binary gender). As far as mechanics, I think singular ‘they’ will win out because English has always been lazy, borrowing from wherever and reusing whatever. Time will tell. Best of luck with the singular ‘they’s in your future!

No worries. Express yourself. It’s weird, sometimes I’m used to they singular, like “give them the bagel” and “I about to pass a car and then they cut me off”. Other times it’s not natural. Maybe I’m caught in the mid-generation.

Y’all and folks are good, but are a little Southern for me. To bad I can’t just even it up by calling everybody in mixed groups ‘gals’.

It’s better than Ze. I think it’s a generational thing and it will evolve it’s way into English. My mom really hates it. I don’t mind so much, but I’m transgender. I don’t wanting ‘they’ as a primary pronoun, but I get the stress that comes with being gendered incorrectly. It understandably happens from time to time…

Absolutely how I was raised with it. Though I can see ‘mankind’ being tied up in the same problem. Men certainly have taken a lot of the default positions in language despite being the afterthought of variation in biology.

Yeah, I have a feeling it’s generational and field specific. And yes, when you have so few women in a field, it might feel like even more erasure. Also, I can understand why it’s offensive in historical nature even with benign intent. It’s just like using ‘he’ to refer to a generic man/woman person which thankfully is…

I’m a transman programmer raised in the NW and I say ‘guys’ for all a lot. I have used it for groups of all women before I transitioned. It’s really common there, but I deliberately try not to use it in the Bay Area, especially professionally, cause it’s offensive here to more people. I still use it with my friends…

Ovarian cancer is rare on the individual level, so a 33% increase of rare is still rare. There is not a statistical reason to carry around a lot of extra dread whatever cold comfort that may be. However, on a aggregate level it’s fairly high for an activity with no health benefits. I’m glad the practice is fading.

Sounds like he was a horrible husband. But you can be a cheater and a feminist. After all, women don’t lose that title after they cheat. And feminism is all about equality between men and women. Until there is some accusation of coercion, it’s premature to assume the worst. Monogamy is hard. Many feminists do not…

Not to mention, can a woman who cheats on a man be a feminist?

Can a woman be a feminist and a cheater? If so, then I don’t think you understand what feminism means.

Or to be fair, using his reasoning we shouldn’t care about a disproportionate amount of liberal thought in STEM companies. This imbalance is theoretically do to biological differences between liberals and conservatives that have been discovered in studies. Liberal “openness” is critical to scientific discovery.…