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Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

From:Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 10, 2000, 16:37
On Mon, 9 Oct 2000 17:15:58 -0400, Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:

>On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote: > >> On Mon, Oct 09, 2000 at 04:32:40PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote: >> > OC, I've had a couple people on this list and elsewhere mistake me for >> > male, even with the emotes. Who knows? =^) >> >> Honest confession: when I first saw your name on this list, the first >> impression that came across was "this is a guy". The fact that I know a >> Korean guy elsewhere who's also called "Yoon" doesn't help. > >Well, "Yoon" is only half a given name in Korean, and it could be the >first or second syllable. "Yoon Ha" is actually *either* male *or* >female in Korean, and my mom tells me it's slightly more often used for >males or something. <shrug> > >> *ahem* cautious person that I am, I silently stayed away from deciding >> one way or the other, and after observing the tone of your posts (and of >> course, the emotes), I started to doubt my initial hypothesis. Then, one >> fine day, I came across the line "YHL, wishing she were actually fluent" >> and I said to myself, Aha! so it *was* a female :-)
I also figured out you (YHL) were female, but for the wrong reasons: when I saw "Yoon Ha Lee", my subconscious (or whatever) seeing an oriental name automatically took Yoon as the surname, even though I knew that Lee was a more likely surname. "Ha Lee" then sounded (to my mind) like "Holly", a female given name.
> >I happen to be one of the people who doesn't actually care whether >someone on the web is male or female except when silly English pronouns >come up. On a somewhat related notes, some of my friends have noted that >it's disconcerting that in my fiction, I have this tendency not to refer >to the sex or a character until s/he actually appears, and they want to >know *right away* or it feels uncomfortable. I'm perfectly happy not >knowing unless it becomes relevant to the plot and interactions >(pregnancy, societies that differentiate male and female roles, etc.). I >seem to be a minority, though. >
[snip]
>For those who aren't sure, I'm not offended by referred to as an "it," >but I suspect I'm also in the minority there.
To me, "it" suggests an inanimate object, and you seem to be rather animate! I usually refer to a person of unknown gender as "they"; this also works well if the person has multiple personalities.
> >YHL, much amused
Jeff