When you have no gender but everyone calls you "He"

Tentacle Love·May 9, 2016·59 votes·5,188 views

happy bard noises

translation: DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND A SINGLE chime COMING OUT OF MY jinglejangle

119 Comments

AramsAreBestMay 9, 201657 votes

A lot of languages use masculine prefixes over feminine. It's just how they work.

BeeCuzMay 9, 20166 votes

{quoted}

A lot of languages use masculine prefixes over feminine. It's just how they work.

http://www.tranquilwaters.uk.com/images/fairy29.jpg It is traditional that the man comes first, and the woman completes the family set.

doombotMECHAMay 9, 20169 votes

yes but see, biologically, female is the default. Women have XX chromosomes (aka a backup just in case) while guys have a Y chromosome that literally just says "make a dick". it's one of the shortest chromosomes in humans.

honestly the main reason that he is the default is because the main guys doing linguistics in english were, well, guys. Gender-neutral pronouns are a thing y'all.

I just realized this may be flamebait. I kind of don't care

MagosAmphroseMay 9, 201622 votes

That may be so, but it's a habit that the vast majority of languages to refer to an unknown gender as male. Besides, there are no girls on the internet, and while outdated, sure, he is two letters less than they when I'm typing, letting me return to play a millisecond faster.

Besides, the league community generally uses the champions that are being played as a basis on what to call you gender-wise. Generally, the only exception is when you are a bro. Then you're a bro. tbh, I don't care if you are a SJW feminazi who's insistent on being called freakin' xer or whatever the latest gender-neutral word is nowadays, this is a game, dammit, and pushing the point only makes you seem like a dick.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

AeszarckMay 9, 201618 votes

That's a TVTropes link...

you monster.

let me out, please

MagosAmphroseMay 9, 201611 votes

Nah. You can ruin your life for a little bit longer, methinks.

AeszarckMay 9, 201611 votes

I HAVE AN ESSAY TO WRITE

blkKalameetMay 9, 201615 votes

*had.

APoetCalledLoveMay 10, 20162 votes

Also if you comment with they, then all the grammar nazi's will tell you that it's actually he/she since one person cannot be plural. And then your teammate spends 20 minutes trying to explain grammar instead of actually move their champion.

HayRossMay 9, 20166 votes

I always found it interesting that Humans have always tended to more male-dominated societies, even though females are the default for humans.

SteelflameMay 9, 201614 votes

Very simple. Men are innately stronger than women. Man dominates woman who isn't submissive.

Women are by far weaker than men are on average, and for most of history had a very big problem with "Living to the ripe old age of died in childbirth" due to poor medical care for most of history. Society is far more progressive now, but even then you still see a lot of those old ideals hold enough strength that it colors our society. Most CEOs will be male (Old white males at that), most high income jobs, with the higher risk jobs having an insanely dispropotionate %age being male, among other issues. I mean, guys have almost as many issues as women do in society, in the nature of "You are a guy, suck it up and be an emotionless robot, and whatever you do do not let your emotions show" for any guy who is overly emotional gets called a wimp/girly/ect...

Society is getting better, but we have a few thousand years of tradition to break down.

HayRossMay 10, 20163 votes

What I find likely is that with machines now rapidly replacing the need for actual muscle, the fact that males are stronger than females will no longer mean anything. This could actually happen rather soon, given the fact that few jobs nowaday require much physical strength (Or atleast, far less than in the past)

ElysMustacheMay 10, 20162 votes

{quoted}

few jobs nowaday require much physical strength (Or atleast, far less than in the past)

I feel like you haven't spent much time in the job force.

Pika FoxMay 10, 20162 votes

Also, historically, men were expendable, and women were very important.

1 man and 10 women can repopulate a small group if needed.

10 men and 1 woman cannot.

Therefore it was more logical to have most of the risky work go to the group that was expendable, while the reproductive work went to the female. Evolution kinda forced that in on us for a long while, and people innately followed that, consciously or not.

Now we are so widespread and our reproductive future assured that the risk doesnt really exist, so society can actually adapt and change going forward with success (especially with advances in medical science).

So basically, yay advancement.

NeoBrawlerMay 10, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I always found it interesting that Humans have always tended to more male-dominated societies, even though females are the default for humans.

They are not the default btw. That is not how biology works.

Reynard the ƒoxMay 10, 20169 votes

All fetuses start as females in the womb, regardless of their birth gender.

KittenguinMay 9, 201624 votes

That goes with calling Kindred a 'she'. And also the tooltips refer to Bard as a 'he'.

doombotMECHAMay 9, 20164 votes

yeah, kindy's a "they"

RaptorKarrMay 9, 20167 votes

Well you can call Lamb a She and Wolf a He

AtanchanMay 9, 20164 votes

I forget, did Riot ever confirm this?

I mean, I do this and their voices are clearly unambiguous, but did Kindred's original form actually have both genders which were split when everything else was, or was it a genderless being and its fragments just happen to have masculine and feminine traits?

The EcdysiastMay 10, 20166 votes

It was a tall man with dark hair to begin with, so maybe Kindred's just the half without the penis.

Maximum MordeMay 9, 201615 votes

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6cjn--5LhHA/UmmBqS9FxAI/AAAAAAAAMQY/FofqBSivzGE/s280/Never-Go-Full-Retard.jpg

BrujahbrMay 9, 20168 votes

stop

Tentacle LoveMay 9, 201618 votes

{quoted}

stop

Bard jingles

MisterShamelessMay 9, 201625 votes

http://i.imgur.com/g2wKkCL.gif (click it)

HayRossMay 9, 20164 votes

Gifs that don't move unless you click on them have always annoyed me...

GorgantMay 10, 20162 votes

pssst hey you....yes you....just add ?noredirect to the end of the gif Heimerdinger

DengedenMay 9, 20168 votes

How could anyone miss the opportunity to call him Brad?

BigfootNamedYetiMay 9, 201611 votes

I like to think of Bards "brolaf" skin to be him in a polo traveling the rift collecting graggy ice beers and his name is Brad.

AlleoMay 9, 20164 votes

And instead of his normal horn he could either have an air horn or one of those bugle things you see at sports games.

BigfootNamedYetiMay 9, 20166 votes

Oh sweet baby zilean make this a reality, and maybe his meeps will tiny frat brads

Reynard the ƒoxMay 10, 20162 votes

Freshman pledges!

Immortal spaxMay 9, 20166 votes

Tumblr intensifies

EndlessSorcererMay 9, 20165 votes

I tend to use 'they' as a gender neutral pronoun.

NixtarmaMay 9, 20163 votes

I dislike this increasingly common position because "they" is already a pronoun referring to a group of people.

EndlessSorcererMay 9, 20165 votes

English is a bit lacking in gender-neutral single-person pronouns.

The only alternative I can think of at the moment is "it" and that tends to be considered dehumanizing.

IceKingChernobogMay 10, 20165 votes

{quoted}

English is a bit lacking in gender-neutral single-person pronouns.

The only alternative I can think of at the moment is "it" and that tends to be considered dehumanizing.

They/They're/Them are gender neutral, and yes "It" is very dehumanizing

Photos of GhostsMay 10, 20161 votes

Why is it dehumanising to not consider one's sexuality in talking about their identity? We're not animals.

EndlessSorcererMay 10, 20162 votes

Generally, "it" tends to be used for inanimate objects.

That is where the negative connotations come from when using it to refer to living beings.

The EcdysiastMay 9, 20168 votes

It's not "increasingly common."

It's been the norm for hundreds of years.

BladegloryMay 10, 20162 votes

There's a lot of words and phrases that people use incorrectly that bothers me, so I know how you feel. (ATM machine, PIN number, instantaneous, decimate... and many more) I just try to focus on the reason why language has/is changing and if that reason is any good. Rather than attempt to get the English speaking population to pick up one of the singular gender-neutral pronouns that already exist in obscurity, changing "they" from "multiple people, possibly of varied gender" to "multiple genders and/or people" is a lot easier.

And hey, filling a gap in usage is a lot better of a reason than "tacking on extra syllables to look smart" and "I need more words that mean the exact same thing"

Autrah FangMay 10, 20164 votes

{quoted}

There's a lot of words and phrases that people use incorrectly that bothers me, so I know how you feel. (ATM machine, PIN number, instantaneous, decimate... and many more)

and i'm just gonna add "literally" to that list. so often i hear people say things like "i literally died" or in league "i literally got one shotted" even though a full combo hit them... while i'm just sitting here like "... that word literally does not mean that and shouldn't be used in that context..." lol

EndlessSorcererMay 10, 20162 votes

https://xkcd.com/725/

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/literally.png

Ironclad DragonMay 10, 20164 votes

It's the LUXURIOUS BEARD.

Dr CatMay 9, 20163 votes

On a similar note. When referring to a player in game, should we refer to them by their characters gender? "Where is Sona?" "Oh, _she _is in the jungle."

Or do we use all masculine pronouns out of probability? Or, does it even matter and why.

Personally I'm not too concerned since it's all in the context of a game.

Gnart Even CloseMay 9, 201610 votes

generally, you refer to players by their champion and not their username, and as such would go by the champion's gender. of course, not everyone is the same, this might just be me

The EcdysiastMay 10, 20164 votes

Well the question was, "where is Sona?"

You're answering that question, so you answer that Sona (she) is in the jungle.

If you're playing with your friend John, and someone asks, "where's John?" You'd answer, "he's in the jungle," even if he's playing Sona.

The EcdysiastMay 9, 20163 votes

"Bard travels through realms beyond the imagination of mortal beings. Some of Valoran's greatest scholars have spent their lives trying to understand the mysteries he embodies."

"he embodies."

"he"

Bard is male, according to the official Riot page on the champion.