A language instructor was explaining to her class that in
French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are
grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. "House," in
French, is feminine --"la maison." "Pencil," in French, is
masculine -- "le crayon."
One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?" The word
wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class
into two groups appropriately enough, by gender, and asked them
to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine
noun. Both groups were required to give four reasons for their
recommendation.
The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of
the feminine order ("la computer"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other
computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory
for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your pay check on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
masculine ("le computer"), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them
on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for
themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the
time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd
waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better
model.
the women won because the teacher was female.
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