August, I am relieved to find out that you are still a guy!! Things are confusing enough in cyberlife without switching back and forth just for the fun of confusing me. Since you were musing on this issue, I think everyone has a different sense of who is male or female on the web, and different ways of tackling the identity puzzle. I have sometimes assumed someone is a guy, and found out he was female. And I have thought someone was a girl (like I did with you), and then had to revise my impression.
Some people just write obviously like men or women. Sadly, one of the things I look for in masculine writing is good use of logic, and one of the things I look for in women's writing is good expression of emotion. So I am unfortunately still stuck in gender stereotypes, but working on it.
I thought I was making a little headway until all those big animals and fish appeared on the scene. Talk about gender bending--how about species smashing!! All in all, though, I think this is very healthy for people who like to use words, because that is our only medium here, and it is good exercise particularly when all the usual preconceptions are dashed. What I mean is that if you finally learn how to swing a bat blindfolded, and figure out how to hit it by instinct and listening to the sounds of it whizzing towards you, you will end up being a very good baseball player, indeed!! |
