Gender in Language

LaZorra: ...One of the folks in the newsroom just opened the AP Stylebook and exclaimed, "Wow, that's hardcore! Did you know 'fiancee' is spelled differently for a man and a woman?!" Choruses of, "NO WAI!!"

Dave: That's dumb.

Dave: That's like how there's comedian and comedienne.

Dave: Hello this is not French our nouns do not have gender stop pretending like they do!

Kysle: Waitress, waiter?

Kysle: We adopt such for some words.

Dave: It's still stupid. And anyhow, everybody knows the proper gender free version is "waitron".

Sam: "waiter" and "waitress" are distinguished using English conventions. Fiance/fiancee and comedian/comedienne exhibit a spelling convention borrowed from the language where the words themselves came from, which is different. Not siding with Dave necessarily, but it's different.

Sam: There's also the argument to be made that "waiter" and "waitress" are gender-neutral nouns, even though they refer to male and female persons, respectively. As opposed to fiance/fiancee in French, which not only do that but have a "gender" as well, like every other noun.

Goosey: I don't know what you guys are talking about. When I go to a restaurant they only have "servers" and on a plane they have "flight attendants".

goldfishy: You get food brought to you by high end computers? Where do you eat? I wanna see that

Sentynel: gold: You need a really fast internet connection.

Sam: "servers" are computers. The chicks that bring you food in restaurants are called "wenches."

Sam: Possibly "barmaids," depending on whether or not there's a bar.

Sam: On planes, they're "flying wenches."

Sam: Or possibly "air wenches."

Goosey: LOL

* Sentynel chokes on his sandwich laughing

Sam: I'm undecided about which term is awesomer.

Sentynel: Definitely "flying wenches".

goldfishy: Hehehehe at least both kindsa servers have racks *giggles childishly*

LaZorra: In garages, they're "flying wrenches."

Goosey: "I'm not a wench, I'm NOT a wench!"

Sentynel: gold: LOL LOL

Goosey: fishy: LOL!

Dave: WAITRON

Sam: The wenches who work in libraries have "stacks."

Goosey: Sam: Why yes I do.

LaZorra: LOL LOL LOL

LaZorra: I love you people.

Dave: What about racks?

Dave: Oh, those are for server wenches.

Sam: In hospitals, "matron" is male, obviously.

Sam: Because the feminine form is "mattress."

Goosey: LOL

Sam: Other male/female pairs: under/undress, butter/buttress, pr0n/press.

Goosey: *snerk*

Sentynel: LOL

Dave: Everybody knows if you absolutely need to point out that the noun in question is female, you put the word "chick" in front of it.

Dave: So benefactor because "chick benefactor". Comedian is "chick comedian." And so on.

Sentynel: Goosey: LOL LOL

Sam: How's your chick husband doing?

Dave: Very well!

Sam: Glad to hear it! She's quite a chick man.

Dave: This gives an unfortunate double meaning to the term "chick magnet" though.

Sam: LOL

Sam: Just so I understand, "bitch" should be "chick dog" now, right?

Sam: As in, "Quit chick dogging to me about that!"

Sentynel: Sam: So stealing that.