Does Anyone Know Why?

[Aspergers_Aspie]

Does anyone know why people refer to inanimate objects as 'she' a non living object? (I do not) i.e. a boat or ship or 'her' i.e. who sailed in her

 

[tree]

"Unlike many modern languages, such as German and the Romance languages, modern English does not employ grammatical gender, where each noun is assigned masculine, feminine or neuter gender regardless of whether the noun has a biological sex—for example, table is feminine in French (la table) and masculine in German (ein Tisch).

Rather, English employs natural gender, where animate entities with a biological sex take the masculine (he/him/his/himself) or feminine (she/her/hers/herself) gender, and inanimate nouns take the neuter (it/its/itself) gender. (It is worth noting that, as more people take on more fluid gender identities, natural gender does not always conform to biological sex.)

When English usage subverts natural gender, this is called metaphorical gender. Metaphorical gender can be applied to ships and many other entities, such as stock prices.

(1) Is she on an even keel?
(2) She’s off $2 today.
This phenomenon of imposing masculinity or femininity on sexless objects and abstract concepts is used for poetic effect in order to personify objects or show strong emotional involvement with them, especially when calling an object it seems too cold. Since English lacks grammatical gender, English speakers are given creative licence to personify objects as whichever gender they choose."

Additional examples follow, in the article.



Metaphorical Gender in English: Feminine Boats, Masculine Tools and Neuter Animals | Druide

 

[Schism]

Just a human thing I think. We like to attach ourselves to both living and inanimate objects emotionally. BB King had many guitars all called Lucille. I call my cars names & attach a gender name based on their registration plates. They are still just a car. It just helps me remember my registration number!

 

[Fino]

Thanks for asking! I'm happy to have read @tree's response! I feel like I understand this much better now, and I hadn't even realized I didn't understand it very well.

 

[Streetwise]

Does anyone know why people refer to inanimate objects as 'she' a non living object? (I do not) i.e. a boat or ship or 'her' i.e. who sailed in her

To me it comes from an effete anglified culture which is male dominated and real girls, women females are treated disrespectfully!!!!!!!because a certain percentage of human males are extremely self absorbed until !!!!!!they really !!!!!!!suffer

 

[Misery]

Alot of people using "he" and "she" for objects, and here I am just using "this stupid lump" in relation to my laptop or something. Whatever isnt working at the time.

 

[SusanLR]

I know a lot of languages do this, but, it never made sense to me either.
I have a tendency to neutral gender most everything.
Even people are being called guys, especially in a group, although some are women.
The need for all these titles that identify male or female when speaking of people seem
a bit dated to me.
It IS the Hu-man race and we say Man-kind.
Not to say the word man should mean a rung up on the hierarchy, but, one word would have
worked for me. We're all People.

 

[Streetwise]

I know a lot of languages do this, but, it never made sense to me either.
I have a tendency to neutral gender most everything.
Even people are being called guys, especially in a group, although some are women.
The need for all these titles that identify male or female when speaking of people seem
a bit dated to me.
It IS the Hu-man race and we say Man-kind.
Not to say the word man should mean a rung up on the hierarchy, but, one word would have
worked for me. We're all People.

Strangely in the Bible which people would think very patronising( related to the word pater Latin for father )doesn’t have genders as we understand it ,Ha Shem(G~d) refers to what people know as eve as being a man ,she is really just another part of Adam ,so is a man ,they are seen as being one ,which I think comes from Judaism in that God is called one but with different parts ,so I think the idea of men and women comes from a pagan patriarchal society ,where insecure self absorbed men want to control everything .
Judaism uses the term husband and wife but again not the way pagans do. but let me be clear I am not saying that all Jewish people are completely perfect

 

[OrangeSquash]

I find this odd too - like "its a car, it doesn't have lady-parts" Strange.

 

[Pats]

It's just a guess, but probably some man came up with gendering cars and boats and things they love as 'her' because it sounded better. All my son's jeeps have female names and, even though they are rough and tough, I'm sure he prefers to talk about all the 'she's' in his life than 'he's'. "She's my baby." lol

 

[AnnMoss]

To me it comes from an effete anglified culture which is male dominated and real girls, women females are treated disrespectfully!!!!!!!because a certain percentage of human males are extremely self absorbed until !!!!!!they really !!!!!!!suffer

So agree, and also heteronormative culture dictates it would be imply "gayness" for a straight man to talk about objects as male. That's reserved for their penises.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I once heard that a long time ago sea captains wouldn't let women on their boats because in those days everyone was very superstitious and thought it brought bad luck. And yet they were always naming their ships after women and referring to it as a "she". Of course, inanimate objects don't do things that many men for years have found really "wrong" when women do it, like disobey them or talk back.

 

[Streetwise]

So agree, and also heteronormative culture dictates it would be imply "gayness" for a straight man to talk about objects as male. That's reserved for their penises.

no I cant agree, it seems to the influence of the vandals/vikings/ normans ,if you think of latinate languages objects are male /female /neuter ,its english influenced culture that call objects female !creatures ,in their insecure I couldnt nurture a foetus! tantrum !I cant control everything way ,
If a kitchen table was respectfully !!!!!honoured !!!!!by the classification female thats good

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

Anyone else confused why people call non living thing things she? Like a boat. Why sometimes people call the ground the floor? As the floor is indoors and the ground is outdoors

 

[Juliettaa]

It doesn't confuse me if people use 'she', I just ignore they've said that and stick to the relevant term, no he/she applied to inanimate objects.

A boat is a boat. A car is a car. Etc, etc.

And all who sail in … it? The language row over 'female' ships

 

[onlything]

I suspect it's simply being sentimental towards an object, quite similar to how children are treating plush toys like living beings, just in a more 'adult' way. If an object creates a very specific pleasant feeling in a person, they become connected to it in a meaningful (for them) way. It's an expression of attachment, simply speaking.

Most people have at least one object like that, sometimes a boat, sometimes a phone, a toy, a laptop. The added gender pronoun is an affectionate way of describing imaginary stereotypical traits the object would perfectly posses if it was alive. Imaginary play, in a way? It seems to make people calmer and less lonely from what I've seen, like with children that create imaginary friends. Human need for creating a connection and a sense of belonging, I presume?

 

[menander]

Words make no sense when you boil it down. I am ore perplexed by people referring to me in some way or other. Yes, I am one of those people ( I do know I am human ) who do not connect to any of the adjectives anyone would lay on me. I don't know why this is. Others in same situation, I would love your ideas.

 

[Mush]

I’ve had the same argument with a friend from Poland many times, where he claims in their language a plethora everyday objects are assigned genders.
He tried to convince me it was a more elevated and advanced language than English (not that I even care).

I told him it is stupid and infantile to assign genders to non-living things. We agreed to disagree.

 

[onlything]

I’ve had the same argument with a friend from Poland many times, where he claims in their language a plethora everyday objects are assigned genders.
He tried to convince me it was a more elevated and advanced language than English (not that I even care).

I told him it is stupid and infantile to assign genders to non-living things. We agreed to disagree.

Haven't thought of that before, actually, but there indeed are many languages that include grammar rules based on genders with each object having a specific one. Not sure why it works like this even in my native one, it's just part of the language, not something people question, since object's 'gender' isn't really treated like a real gender, more like a specific label that allows the use of the grammar well. So, languages such as German, Polish, Spanish etc are definitely more complex than English... But complex doesn't mean more advanced or better. While it's true there are many expressions you can't translate into English too well, the same could be said about translation from English to one of these languages. Complex also isn't necessarily bad. They're different, simply speaking, and neither is better or worse than the other. It's yet another type of perception of the world.

Your friend sounds a bit close-minded concerning his culture and language... but from my experiences Polish people tend to be like that, putting much pride in the complexity of the language and their history (to the point that we have a going joke in my old workplace: 'If you want to make a Pole talk, just ask them about their history').

I wouldn't say the assignment of gender pronouns to objects is infantile or stupid, simply based on traditions and grammar, since very often the correct form of every part of the sentence is based on the 'gender' of used objects, but it doesn't mean that these objects are treated as if they really had a gender of their own - it's simply a way of speaking. Maybe complicated more than necessary for some, but also in some ways quite charming, especially in poetry, if you learn it well enough.

 

[Judge]

Anyone else confused why people call non living thing things she? Like a boat. Why sometimes people call the ground the floor? As the floor is indoors and the ground is outdoors

I realized a very long time ago that it was preferable to seek out patterns in that which did not immediately make sense to me, rather than search for logic which may not be there. So even if some word or saying didn't make sense, I simply related to it in terms of how it was colloquially used.

Not a difficult process to me, I suppose enabled by a language which has a great deal of inconsistencies itself.