4 ms·

How comes you both assume the author is male? She is called Sabine Hossenfelder.

motardo 9y ago
The gender of the name "Sabine" is not obvious to me. I wish English had a good gender neutral pronoun. "He or she" is too formal sounding. "They/their/them" is too informal sounding.
- jdmichal 9y ago
  I wonder why you feel that singular they is informal? There's nothing wrong with the construction. It's attested as far back as 14th century. And, as you mention, it certainly fills a void in the language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
coldtea 9y ago
How come you assume a person named Sabine must 100% be a woman? And how come you assume that even if said person indeed has the XX chromosomes (to be nominally classified as a "woman"), that they also self-identify as a woman and prefer the adjective "she" over "he" or some other? See how far this rabbit hole goes? It's easy why they assumed the author is male: they don't care who the author is, and didn't read their name on the blog. I read the first 6-7 paragraphs of the post and didn't bother to read the name either. And even if I had, "Sabine" as a name doesn't tell me anything about the gender (not a name we have in my country, nor a very well know one, like Mary or Helen or something that everybody would guess). Heck, there are Spanish men called "Maria". Had I made a comment I might have used either "they" or assumed it's a man, mostly because statically for things posted at HN, it would be true.
- thaumaturgy 9y ago
  I dunno about the rest of you, but I clicked on the link to her Twitter account, which so far has much higher quality stuff than this thread on HN. Some fun links: "Lightning makes new isotopes" http://www.nature.com/news/lightning-makes-new-isotopes-1.23033 http://www.nature.com/news/lightning-makes-new-isotopes-1.23... "P-values--abused but not abandoned" (includes some nice background on p-values for those of us for whom the concept is a little fuzzy) http://sciencenordic.com/p-values-abused-not-abandoned http://sciencenordic.com/p-values-abused-not-abandoned A cute video of Feynman answering the question of whether you're seeing an object, or only the light from an object, when looking at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8aWBcPVPMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8aWBcPVPMo A single-molecule magnet: https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.217202 https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119... ...and all that's just in the last 24 hours. She's got a fantastic Twitter feed for the science-interested.
- pressanykey 9y ago
  Sorry, I was not aware that Sabine is not obvious in english. The picture in the top right could also have been a hint. It is not about it being "100% woman" but about "male" being the default. I think it is telling that the assumption seems to be physics -> male. If this would have been about social issues or fashion, maybe the people would have checked before assuming male gender? I don't say it does not happen to me too, but if it happens, I think it is good to raise awareness.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >Sorry, I was not aware that Sabine is not obvious in english. The picture in the top right could also have been a hint. Hmm, I managed to miss the picture too! >It is not about it being "100% woman" but about "male" being the default Is it the default because of bias though, or just because it's just more common -- and people tend to assume based on frequency?
tizzdogg 9y ago
Note also the picture of her at the top of the page.
joesb 9y ago
Because I don't care enough to pay attention.

The gender of the name "Sabine" is not obvious to me. I wish English had a good gender neutral pronoun. "He or she" is too formal sounding. "They/their/them" is too informal sounding.

jdmichal 9y ago
I wonder why you feel that singular they is informal? There's nothing wrong with the construction. It's attested as far back as 14th century. And, as you mention, it certainly fills a void in the language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

coldtea 9y ago

How come you assume a person named Sabine must 100% be a woman? And how come you assume that even if said person indeed has the XX chromosomes (to be nominally classified as a "woman"), that they also self-identify as a woman and prefer the adjective "she" over "he" or some other? See how far this rabbit hole goes? It's easy why they assumed the author is male: they don't care who the author is, and didn't read their name on the blog. I read the first 6-7 paragraphs of the post and didn't bother to read the name either. And even if I had, "Sabine" as a name doesn't tell me anything about the gender (not a name we have in my country, nor a very well know one, like Mary or Helen or something that everybody would guess). Heck, there are Spanish men called "Maria". Had I made a comment I might have used either "they" or assumed it's a man, mostly because statically for things posted at HN, it would be true.

thaumaturgy 9y ago
I dunno about the rest of you, but I clicked on the link to her Twitter account, which so far has much higher quality stuff than this thread on HN. Some fun links: "Lightning makes new isotopes" http://www.nature.com/news/lightning-makes-new-isotopes-1.23033 http://www.nature.com/news/lightning-makes-new-isotopes-1.23... "P-values--abused but not abandoned" (includes some nice background on p-values for those of us for whom the concept is a little fuzzy) http://sciencenordic.com/p-values-abused-not-abandoned http://sciencenordic.com/p-values-abused-not-abandoned A cute video of Feynman answering the question of whether you're seeing an object, or only the light from an object, when looking at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8aWBcPVPMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8aWBcPVPMo A single-molecule magnet: https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.217202 https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119... ...and all that's just in the last 24 hours. She's got a fantastic Twitter feed for the science-interested.
pressanykey 9y ago
Sorry, I was not aware that Sabine is not obvious in english. The picture in the top right could also have been a hint. It is not about it being "100% woman" but about "male" being the default. I think it is telling that the assumption seems to be physics -> male. If this would have been about social issues or fashion, maybe the people would have checked before assuming male gender? I don't say it does not happen to me too, but if it happens, I think it is good to raise awareness.
- coldtea 9y ago
  >Sorry, I was not aware that Sabine is not obvious in english. The picture in the top right could also have been a hint. Hmm, I managed to miss the picture too! >It is not about it being "100% woman" but about "male" being the default Is it the default because of bias though, or just because it's just more common -- and people tend to assume based on frequency?

tizzdogg 9y ago

Note also the picture of her at the top of the page.

joesb 9y ago

Because I don't care enough to pay attention.