[Lore Discussion] Commanders' Genders and the use of "He".

The thread name reflects the attitudes and opinions being professed within.

This thread is also approaching a level of dumb that even some men being dropped obvious hints on a date night cannot even touch.

Can we just stop this pointless argument before eroticburrito gets charred?

You know what's gonna happen, as soon as you give genders to robots... right?

Rule 34: No exceptions.
I feel like I've said that before.

The amount of backlash I got for a three-line post caught me off-guard.

Despite the excuses thrown up, "He" is not gender neutral and I've cited dictionary definitions.

I'm not trying to be the PC police, I just want to know why they're all referred to as men.

And if it's because we live in a male-dominated culture where we use "He" to refer to everything, then we should be aware that we shape culture, and make the conscious decision not to use "He" when we can use "It" or "They".
Culture is not a defence if you are a rational, independently thinking empathetic human being.

We live in a male-dominated culture. It doesn't have to signify anything in this day and age if we do not let it. Don't read into it. That's it.

Well culture shouldn't be male-dominated, that's the point :/
"He" is what we use as a masculine pronoun, so it'll always having masculine connotations if we try to use it in a neutral way.
If "He" wasn't used as a masculine pronoun then such connotations wouldn't exist and I would have no woop.

Also, as I said, the dictionary definition doesn't really support using it as a genderless pronoun. Nor do we need to as we have "It" and "They". It's not like we have to like it or lump it. There is an alternative ready and waiting.

I wish I could stop clicking on this thread. It's like when your friend holds up something odd and says "Hey man, smell this!" You know it is going to smell bad, but you sniff it anyways...

Why? That's the best way to eat a burrito.

It's only that because people (like you) let it be.

Robots are a cool subject, and exploration of what it means to be that could be really interesting. just using "he" is IMHO a cop-out

remember when you could have a game about fighting robots and smashing planets without having to question the broad socieological impact of gender pronouns and how they effect womyn?

not even pepperidge farm remembers.

This is about the Lore, not gameplay.
If you don't have anything to say except sarcastic spite towards gender equality then what are you doing here?

laughing at the pointlessness of the argument.

Okay, so you're being the PC interrogator instead, that's not much better.

I posted a three-line proposition that we might have Commanders referred to by "She". That's not interrogating. I have been questioning peoples' preconceptions and making them uncomfortable. That's no reason to start characterising me as an interrogator. You are not detained. You are not being judged.

Would you see the point if all the Commanders were called "She"?

Except it's not a proposition anymore, is it?
You "just want to know why they're all referred to as men".
When you're given answers you don't like you refuse to accept their legitimacy for seemingly no reason other than "th-the dictionary said this..." when dictionaries rarely ever take into consideration cultural definitions in the first place.
To prove this you just have to look up words that mean one thing culturally, but another literally.
Like bitch, most dictionaries will only list female dogs and displeasure, but not a derogatory term for women/"weak" men, but that's what it's used for.

Now you have me wondering, would YOU?

"You" doesn't distinguish between singular and multiple, why would "they" have to meet a different standard?

Look. Admitting a culture is sexist is no excuse for being sexist.
I do refuse to accept the legitimacy or argument that "He" is used to refer to sentient life forms with no sex when we can just as easily (and more accurately) call them "It".

My Dictionary is the Oxford English Dictionary, and it's pretty damn accurate:
Bitch:
2.
a. Applied opprobriously to a woman; strictly, a lewd or sensual woman. Not now in decent use; but formerly common in literature. In mod. use, esp. a malicious or treacherous woman; of things: something outstandingly difficult or unpleasant. (See also son of a bitch n.)

Lastly, if all the Commanders were called "She" I would find it equally strange and would want an explanation for us using a gendered pronoun to describe a non-gendered robot.

Well it is grammatically incorrect, but I'd rather change grammar than refer to everything if it's male.
madmecha makes a good argument for using "They" which would stretch grammar with some good ol' fashioned logic and perhaps pave the way for using "They" in a singular sense:

Yes, we touched on this yesterday, it's no excuse, but that doesn't make it magically untrue.

Why is this even bugging you so much?
I'm legitimately interested, why is it that mediocre lore written for a video game about robots calling the robots "he" bothering you?

This is seriously bordering SJW territory, only nowhere near as badly thought out.