gendered language is kinda whack fr like why is a computer referred to as she in some languages, but then being able to choose what gendered words I use for myself in russian is a cool way to assert dominance
Well another thing is that’s not just a simple language thing - it’s culture as well. For example, Hispanic cultures (generally) tend to have a more “conservative” mindset regarding gender and non-binarism, it’s practically nonexistent here in Spain.
I have family in Mexico who attempt to de-empasize gendered language in Spanish, but yeah there’s a lot of pushback from more conservative people, and unfortunately those conservative voices tend to be the loudest.
Interesting experiment: Ask translation software to translate “my manager”, “the cleaner”, etc. into a gendered language and see which one it chooses for each.
The correct gender-neutral translation for “cleaner” in German is “die Putzkraft”, which is female, because Kraft (force) is female, basically a “policeman” vs. “police officer” kind of situation. “Reinigungsfachkraft” in case you want to emphasise their occupational degree. Persons, too, are all female while members are neuter.
being able to choose what gendered words I use for myself in russian is a cool way to assert dominance
Seconded. I started studying Spanish just a few months after coming out as trans. I’d expected all the gendered personal nouns/adjectives to make conversations with new people awkward, but not at all! It gave me the chance to tell them how to refer to me straight out instead of waiting for them to either have to ask or guess wrongly.
And hell, if using that -o suffix for myself doesn’t bring the euphoria every damn time. ¡Me encanta!
gendered language is kinda whack fr like why is a computer referred to as she in some languages, but then being able to choose what gendered words I use for myself in russian is a cool way to assert dominance
Well another thing is that’s not just a simple language thing - it’s culture as well. For example, Hispanic cultures (generally) tend to have a more “conservative” mindset regarding gender and non-binarism, it’s practically nonexistent here in Spain.
I have family in Mexico who attempt to de-empasize gendered language in Spanish, but yeah there’s a lot of pushback from more conservative people, and unfortunately those conservative voices tend to be the loudest.
Then you have Finnish which is based and doesn’t even have she/he but just hän.
Interesting experiment: Ask translation software to translate “my manager”, “the cleaner”, etc. into a gendered language and see which one it chooses for each.
In Romanian, they have versions for both genders
both deepl and google translate gave the masculine мой instead of feminine моя, kind of expected this
The correct gender-neutral translation for “cleaner” in German is “die Putzkraft”, which is female, because Kraft (force) is female, basically a “policeman” vs. “police officer” kind of situation. “Reinigungsfachkraft” in case you want to emphasise their occupational degree. Persons, too, are all female while members are neuter.
Seconded. I started studying Spanish just a few months after coming out as trans. I’d expected all the gendered personal nouns/adjectives to make conversations with new people awkward, but not at all! It gave me the chance to tell them how to refer to me straight out instead of waiting for them to either have to ask or guess wrongly.
And hell, if using that -o suffix for myself doesn’t bring the euphoria every damn time. ¡Me encanta!
yeah its so convinient for us trans people, I’d argue english needs something like this but I’d get shit on pretty bad