A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French, unlike
English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
“House” is feminine: “la Maison.”
“Pencil,” is masculine: “le crayon.”
A student asked, “What gender is computer?”
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups - male and female - and asked them to decide for themselves
whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each
group was asked to give four reasons for their recommendation.
The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the
feminine gender (“la computer”), because:
- No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
- The native language they use to communicate with other computers is
incomprehensible to everyone else; - Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for
possible later review; and - As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending
half your salary on accessories for it.
The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be
masculine (“le computer”) because:
- In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
- They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
- 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 gotten a better model.