Why do people here think that I’m a guy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drizzle
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the assumption that individuals helping with homework are male, highlighting issues of gender bias and identity in online interactions. Participants explore the implications of using gender-neutral usernames and the tendency for people to default to male pronouns, often due to the male-dominated nature of certain fields, like physics. The conversation touches on the cultural context of language, where male pronouns are frequently used as defaults in English. Some contributors share personal experiences of being misidentified based on their usernames, which can lead to misunderstandings about gender. The dialogue also includes humorous exchanges about the nature of online identities and the challenges of gender representation in digital spaces. Overall, the thread reflects a broader conversation about sexism, gender assumptions, and the importance of recognizing diversity in online communities.
drizzle
Gold Member
Messages
200
Reaction score
58
now it doesn’t bother me, but why do they instantly assume whoever is helping them with their home work is a guy? :confused: and I’m thinking this is not my problem alone, is it?

why does the word racist come to mind!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
"Racist" because they assume you're male? How about "sexist"? Being male or female isn't a race. :wink:

My guess? (Because I too assumed you were male and you haven't even helped me with my homework.) Because you have a gender-neutral name. And given that there are far more males on this board than females, as a shot in the dark, it's fair to assume that you'd be male rather than female just based on percentages.
 
  • Like
Likes gracy
What is the context of this gender referencing? Notice in English that the male third person pronoun is usually used as a gender neutral third person pronoun also
 
well, they just can say thanks drizzle instead of thank you sir!
 
Maybe they think you're male because...let's face it, the vast majority of physicists are male. Heck, out of forty professors in my department, only 2 are female. Off hand I can only think of one American female grad student in my department, and that's out of 100!

If it makes you feel better, some people think I'm female simply because my user name ends in an a. I only use it because an old ISP gave it to me, based on my first name (Arun) and a couple of random letters.
 
Drizzlia,
Drizzia,
Drissia are more female names than drizzle

But here are top 24 female names
http://names.mongabay.com/female_names.htm

Name % Frequency Approx Number Rank
MARY 2.629 3,991,060 1
PATRICIA 1.073 1,628,911 2
LINDA 1.035 1,571,224 3
BARBARA 0.98 1,487,729 4
ELIZABETH 0.937 1,422,451 5
JENNIFER 0.932 1,414,861 6
MARIA 0.828 1,256,979 7
SUSAN 0.794 1,205,364 8
MARGARET 0.768 1,165,894 9
DOROTHY 0.727 1,103,652 10
LISA 0.704 1,068,736 11
NANCY 0.669 1,015,603 12
KAREN 0.667 1,012,567 13
BETTY 0.666 1,011,048 14
HELEN 0.663 1,006,494 15
SANDRA 0.629 954,879 16
DONNA 0.583 885,047 17
CAROL 0.565 857,721 18
RUTH 0.562 853,167 19
SHARON 0.522 792,443 20
MICHELLE 0.519 787,889 21
LAURA 0.51 774,226 22
SARAH 0.508 771,190 23
KIMBERLY 0.504 765,118 24

I like Kimberly name.
 
haha, no thanks I’ll stick with drizzle
 
Maybe they think you're in the military, sir.
 
ahh... maybe you’re right missy!
 
  • #10
Drizzle seems sort of masculine to me, or at least reminds me of "fo shizzle" which reminds me of young guys coming up with silly 'ebonics' type words.

I have an online friend whom I thought was female when I first started talking to him because his name seemed feminine (apparently a lot of people thought so). The fact that he was talking about kissing cute boys in the first blog post of his I read didn't help much either.
 
  • #11
rootX said:
Drizzlia,
Drizzia,
Drissia are more female names than drizzle

But here are top 24 female names
http://names.mongabay.com/female_names.htm

Name % Frequency Approx Number Rank
MARY 2.629 3,991,060 1
PATRICIA 1.073 1,628,911 2
LINDA 1.035 1,571,224 3
BARBARA 0.98 1,487,729 4
ELIZABETH 0.937 1,422,451 5
JENNIFER 0.932 1,414,861 6
MARIA 0.828 1,256,979 7
SUSAN 0.794 1,205,364 8
MARGARET 0.768 1,165,894 9
DOROTHY 0.727 1,103,652 10
LISA 0.704 1,068,736 11
NANCY 0.669 1,015,603 12
KAREN 0.667 1,012,567 13
BETTY 0.666 1,011,048 14
HELEN 0.663 1,006,494 15
SANDRA 0.629 954,879 16
DONNA 0.583 885,047 17
CAROL 0.565 857,721 18
RUTH 0.562 853,167 19
SHARON 0.522 792,443 20
MICHELLE 0.519 787,889 21
LAURA 0.51 774,226 22
SARAH 0.508 771,190 23
KIMBERLY 0.504 765,118 24

I like Kimberly name.

Kimberly IS a nice name, and 2 of my 3 daughter's names are on the list as well as my wife, 5 aunts, my sister, and a great aunt - good list!

I agree with SA, Drizzle seems sort of masculine to me also.
 
  • #12
I have long learned to not assign any sex to any nicks - especially as intuition from Polish is different from intuition in English.

But nicks are usually not designed to reveal the sex, so this is not a problem. Problems start when I see the real name and I have no idea if it is feminine or masculine.
 
  • #13
Maybe you should end every message with "hugs and kisses, drizzle" :biggrin:
I changed my nick, because it was annoying to be referenced as a male all the time.
 
  • #14
How come everyone assumes I'm a male?
 
  • #15
I think there is a fine distinction in code of conduct and nettiquette in inter genderal discussions :smile: I have seen severe accidents happen elsewhere because the guy had no idea he was quarreling with a girl. This could have been prevented if there was a m/f flag visible somewhere.
 
  • #16
If you are serious about folks getting it right, perhaps changing your username to one that expresses your gender would do the trick.
 
Last edited:
  • #17
This is a bit weird even for me.
 
  • #18
Druzilla would work very nicely.
 
  • #19
Take it easy, man!:biggrin:
 
  • #20
Just for the record, I agree that your username is rather gender neutral and I can imagine that people conveniently assume that you are therefore a male.
On the other hand, is it really relevant? If it bothers you that people say "thank you sir" (which, I must admit, bothers me a little too just because it makes me feel so old :) ) you can change your username into something more intrinsically female. But then again people may also look upon you differently as a person, as seems to happen sometimes to girls in (some areas of) science.

Speaking of unfounded prejudices, I always have this irrational feeling that people that say "sir" are from India :-p
 
  • #21
hahaaa, what a sense of humor you all have. anyways, I said it doesn’t bother me…just made me wonder :)
 
  • #22
Would "ma'am" or "miss" suit you best, chick?
 
  • #23
CompuChip said:
Speaking of unfounded prejudices, I always have this irrational feeling that people that say "sir" are from India :-p

If you say so, boy.
 
  • #24
rootX said:
Drizzlia,
Drizzia,
Drissia are more female names than drizzle

But here are top 24 female names
http://names.mongabay.com/female_names.htm

Name % Frequency Approx Number Rank
MARY 2.629 3,991,060 1
PATRICIA 1.073 1,628,911 2
LINDA 1.035 1,571,224 3
BARBARA 0.98 1,487,729 4
ELIZABETH 0.937 1,422,451 5
JENNIFER 0.932 1,414,861 6
MARIA 0.828 1,256,979 7
SUSAN 0.794 1,205,364 8
MARGARET 0.768 1,165,894 9
DOROTHY 0.727 1,103,652 10
LISA 0.704 1,068,736 11
NANCY 0.669 1,015,603 12
KAREN 0.667 1,012,567 13
BETTY 0.666 1,011,048 14
HELEN 0.663 1,006,494 15
SANDRA 0.629 954,879 16
DONNA 0.583 885,047 17
CAROL 0.565 857,721 18
RUTH 0.562 853,167 19
SHARON 0.522 792,443 20
MICHELLE 0.519 787,889 21
LAURA 0.51 774,226 22
SARAH 0.508 771,190 23
KIMBERLY 0.504 765,118 24

I like Kimberly name.

My favorite female name is Ephemerides.

Funny how names are generational. Names that used to be popular seem strange and unfamiliar. And names that were once 'old people' names are popular baby names again (I guess once those particular people died, some names lost their unpopularity).

Alas, Ephemerides hasn't been in the top 1000 most popular names in at least a century (and probably longer).

Gender neutrual on a homework help forum isn't all bad, though. As some have mentioned, there is a surprise at females being in a math or science oriented field. One of the professors ran into this when she entered the classroom only minutes before the start of class. Being a slightly youngish looking blonde (unless you look closely), one the more helpful male students told her kindly she must be in the wrong classroom, because this class was Calculus. Nice way to get on the good side of your professor!
 
  • #25
Funny tales of misogyny aside, it's just a English caveat to refer to someone you don't know as male, especially if the place in which said person is found happens to be a forum with mostly male members.

That said, I think my username clears it up nicely.
 
  • #26
MissSilvy said:
That said, I think my username clears it up nicely.

Maybe "MissDrizzle" or "physics girl drizzle" would serve the OP well. :biggrin:

I picked my name because I was defending my phd the week I joined up (PF is a great procrastination place)... and when I thought about emailing Greg to switch and was thinking about a poll to decide on one, everyone was saying they liked pgp... and I'm inherently lazy, so it's stayed. But people probably tend to think I'm younger than I am... and maybe working on the phd rather than done with it.
 
  • #27
physics girl phd said:
Maybe "MissDrizzle" or "physics girl drizzle" would serve the OP well. :biggrin:

I picked my name because I was defending my phd the week I joined up (PF is a great procrastination place)... and when I thought about emailing Greg to switch and was thinking about a poll to decide on one, everyone was saying they liked pgp... and I'm inherently lazy, so it's stayed. But people probably tend to think I'm younger than I am... and maybe working on the phd rather than done with it.

I like your username. It projects an image kind of like one of Charlie's Angels - except more like one of Einstein's Angels, of course.
 
  • #28
I get people here that think I'm male all of the time. Odd since my avatar is female.
 
  • #29
Perhaps, Evo, they think of this as a statement of major gender confusion:

"Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow it reads its name,
The Lady of Shalott. "
 
  • #30
The truth?

Because there's no such thing as GURLS on the internet.
Just kidding. Don't hurt me Evo :P
 
  • #31
Evo said:
I get people here that think I'm male all of the time. Odd since my avatar is female.

Maybe that's a tricky way to make sure you're female:biggrin:
 
  • #32
drizzle said:
now it doesn’t bother me, but why do they instantly assume whoever is helping them with their home work is a guy? :confused: and I’m thinking this is not my problem alone, is it?

why does the word racist come to mind!


Becuase there are no girls on the internet...
 
  • #33
Think of it as your chance to let loose. Think of the possibilities!
 
  • #34
Andre said:
I think there is a fine distinction in code of conduct and nettiquette in inter genderal discussions :smile: I have seen severe accidents happen elsewhere because the guy had no idea he was quarreling with a girl. This could have been prevented if there was a m/f flag visible somewhere.

Evo said:
I get people here that think I'm male all of the time. Odd since my avatar is female.

I was just going to say, "That's what the avatar is for." (That and saving the world from the Fire Nation)
(Guess what my daughter is watching on Netflix?)

I guess that it doesn't work all the time. Personally I think that Evo IS the Lady of Shallot.
 
  • #35
She is NOT your average shallot-lady, Chi (whatever lugubriosity that is), she is the NICE Lady of Shalott (in contrast to the b*tch-witch the poem is about).
 
  • #36
arildno said:
She is NOT your average shallot-lady, Chi (whatever lugubriosity that is), she is the NICE Lady of Shalott (in contrast to the b*tch-witch the poem is about).

Don't know nuthin' 'bout no poem. I just got the same pitcher hangin' in ma bat'room. I got to go, and then...there's Evo.
 
  • #37
Chi Meson said:
Don't know nuthin' 'bout no poem. I just got the same pitcher hangin' in ma bat'room. I got to go, and then...there's Evo.
:smile:
 
  • #38
Evo said:
:smile:

EvoShallot.jpg

:eek:
 
  • #39
Chi Meson said:
EvoShallot.jpg

:eek:
:smile: Chi is getting cuter.
 
  • #40
arildno said:
She is NOT your average shallot-lady, Chi (whatever lugubriosity that is), she is the NICE Lady of Shalott (in contrast to the b*tch-witch the poem is about).

How do you figure that? She's kind of eccentric (how many people will only look at you in the mirror?), and she's obviously a lousy boatsman (she died, didn't she?), but I didn't see her as being a witch.

Of course, I guess Tennyson did write two different versions.
 
  • #41
Chi Meson said:
EvoShallot.jpg

:eek:

Isn't that a little graphic, actually showing the toilet paper you intend to use?

Are you a folder or a scruncher? I forget.
 
  • #42
BobG said:
Isn't that a little graphic, actually showing the toilet paper you intend to use?

Are you a folder or a scruncher? I forget.

I do not recall telling you. :freaked out:
 
  • #43
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #44
So, Dizzle, are you a girl, or are you complaining for no reason in this thread?
 
  • #45
That is a classic face Chi.
 
  • #46
BobG said:
Isn't that a little graphic, actually showing the toilet paper you intend to use?

Are you a folder or a scruncher? I forget.

You're very protective of the TP. :biggrin:
 
  • #47
A few guys have hit on me here at PF. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
 
  • #48
Loren Booda said:
A few guys have hit on me here at PF. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm confused by this comment.
 
  • #49
Cyrus said:
So, Dizzle, are you a girl, or are you complaining for no reason in this thread?

She's a girl. Duh.
 
  • #50
GeorginaS said:
She's a girl. Duh.

He/she never claimed to be a girl. He only complained about everyone assuming he is a boy by default.
 

Similar threads

My friend thinks I'm arguing when I explain my opinion, I wonder why?
Replies
16
Views
3K
The Problem Making Clear the Problems
Replies
20
Views
1K
Why do we spend so much time learning grammar in the public school system?
2
Replies
98
Views
2K
How Is The Upstairs Apartment Giving Me Electric Shocks?
Replies
1
Views
1K
Hi, I'm new here
Replies
1
Views
305
Hi! I'm here for the bed, to be honest.
Replies
3
Views
431
Hey guys, I'm having a difficult time over here. I think that my
Replies
1
Views
7K
Home Repair & Maintenance Advice for Newbie?
Replies
11
Views
3K
Could New Washing Machine Be Damaged by Delivery Guy?
Replies
18
Views
3K
That's Not a Drone!
2
Replies
67
Views
5K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top