Desrtopa comments on Call for Anonymous Narratives by LW Women and Question Proposals (AMA) - Less Wrong

20 [deleted] 09 September 2012 08:39AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 11 September 2012 07:05:03PM 4 points [-]

I tend to prefer women. "Girls" often feels a bit demeaning, especially when contrasted with "men" or "guys".

"Females" sounds like somebody's trying to lend their remark a little too much apparently-biological weight.

I like gender-neutral pronouns when they're handy, for people who want them, or for the generic case. I used to be a bit mixed on which one sounded good for just general conversation, but after reading the Eclipse Phase RPG I pretty much stopped having any sympathy for the idea that "singular they" is awkward. It flows very well for me and sounds quite natural, and it's a common term in English so there's no trouble with inflecting it.

what do you use for the third-person-singular-neuter?

They, them, their.

Comment author: Desrtopa 12 September 2012 03:23:49AM 5 points [-]

I tend to prefer women. "Girls" often feels a bit demeaning, especially when contrasted with "men" or "guys".

It's problematic that there isn't really an age-indeterminate female pronoun to act as a counterpart to "guys," since a not-insignificant fraction of our members are still in their teens.

Comment author: thomblake 12 September 2012 06:30:37PM *  3 points [-]

What about 'gals'? While it's technically just a form of "girls", it's used contextually similarly to "guys".

Comment author: Desrtopa 12 September 2012 07:33:43PM 3 points [-]

I suppose that is indeed a word that exists. Having grown up in the Northeastern U.S., it's not really part of my active vocabulary.

Comment author: mrglwrf 14 September 2012 02:59:50PM 1 point [-]

Only when it's used at all, which is far less often than 'guys'. Yes, it's true that it's a distaff counterpart to 'guys', but so is 'dolls', and would you seriously propose unironic usage of 'dolls'?