The gender orientation of the firefox logo is something I haven’t thought about ever.
What’s the point of this?
Most people default to “this entity is male” without more context. I do it too, it’s a bit of an issue I try to be aware of but regularly fail. Male is default, female is marked; that’s why the stereotypical “girl” character in video games is just the “boy” character but with eye lashes and lips and maybe high heels. (And non-binary doesn’t exist, obv /s)
So I can see this as making the non-genderedness explicit.
Edit: I don’t have the spoons to elaborate on “male is default”. Can someone else maybe jump in? Thx.
Most people default to “this entity is male” without more context.
I have a hard time wrapping my head about this sentence. I don’t think about the gender of any entity without more context because it’s usually completely irrelevant.
Male is default, female is marked
So, I didn’t grow up in an english speaking country, but if I hear “the baker” I don’t automatically assume it’s a man. I think it’s a person that bakes bread and pastry. The same with “the mechanic”, “the engineer”, etc. It’s all - by default - a person.
Now, if we were to talk german, there is actually a difference. As “the baker”, for example, we have “Bäcker” as Male and “Bäckerin” as female. The reason why male is “the default” in german is because it’s shorter. That’s it. If you say “Der Bäcker”, it’s as you’d say “the baker” in english, you don’t automatically make an assumption about the gender. If you say “Die Bäckerin”, you are referring to a female baker specifically.
So I can see this as making the non-genderedness explicit.
Honestly this feels more like a mockery of people that identify as non-binary than raising any kind of awareness. Kinda has some “apache combat helicopter” vibes.
I grew up in a very male-as-default English-speaking culture. Any animal, robot, or plant would be referred to as it or he, unless that creature/thing has additional female markers such as wearing pink, makeup, etc.
For examples look at the designs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse or Babs and Buster Bunny. If you draw a little blob with eyes, people will say “He’s/It’s cute.” If you put a pink bow on it, they will say “She’s cute.”
You can even look at the word “woman” itself. “Man” originally just meant any person, but “woman” was invented to speak specifically about a “wife-man.” Going to your German examples, why did they make special words for female bakers, etc. and none for male bakers? It’s because male is the default and female is a deviation from that norm. You don’t need a special word to describe the default assumption.
There’s this old riddle:
A father and son are in a car accident. The father dies at the scene, and the son is rushed to the hospital. When he is taken into the operating room, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy! He’s my son!” How is this possible?
It plays on one’s assumptions about gender.
They’re not talking about language with the male-as-default, but rather for example this:
The depiction with less discerning features is what we assume to be male. If you want to express female, you have to add a dress or long hair or curves etc…
There’s actual scientific research on this bias existing, although I don’t know in what way this extends to animal depictions.
True, it was just “a fox” for me so far. I didn’t really care about the gender of a drawing. I guess it is a good awareness move though
Feels like a publicity stunt more than a genuine attempt to include non-binary people.
