THe CoMPuTeR GeNDeR DeBaTe...

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class
that, in Spanish, unlike
English, nouns are designated as either masculine
or feminine. "House"
for instance, is feminine: "la casa". "Pencil"
however is masculine:
"el lapiz".

A student asked, "What gender is "computer"?

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the
class into two groups,
male and female, and asked them to decide for
themselves whether "computer"
should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each
group was asked to give four
reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should
definitely be of the feminine
gender ("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
impossible to understand.
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-
term memory for possible
later retrieval.
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one,
you find yourself spending half
your paycheck on accessories for it. (No
chuckling...this gets better!).

The women's group, however, concluded that
computers should be masculine
("el 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.
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize
that, if you had waited a
little longer, you could have gotten a better model!

The women won.