| Computers are used more and more
these days by family historians. But did you ever stop to think whether
your PC is masculine or feminine? Read on...
Gender Bender
A professor was pondering the question -
as to if a computer should be referred to in the masculine or feminine
gender. To this end he set up two working groups of computer experts,
the first comprised all women - and the second all men. The brief of each
group was to recommend whether computers should be referred to in the
feminine gender, or the masculine gender. They were asked to give 4
reasons for their recommendation.
After a lot of deliberation - the group of
women decided that a computer should definitely be regarded as male -
citing the following reasons:
- In order to get their attention, you
have to turn them on;
- They have a lot of data, but are still
clue less;
- They are supposed to help you solve
problems, but half the time they are the problem;
- As soon as you commit to one, you
realize that, if you had waited a little longer you could have had a
better model.
The men, on the other hand, concluded that
Computers should be referred to in the feminine gender because:
- No one but the creator understands
their internal logic - and even that's doubtful;
- The native language they use to
communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
- Even your smallest mistakes are stored
in long-term memory for later retrieval;
- As soon as you make a commitment to
one, you find yourself spending half your paycheque on accessories for
it.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Back to Articles |
