Neo’s not a he
The first couple of months I was blogging I didn’t post a photo of myself. I originally was completely anonymous, and publishing a photo didn’t even cross my mind.
But I could not help but notice that all my readers seemed to assume I was a man. I’m not sure why that was. Perhaps “male” was the default sex for a political blogger, since the majority are male. Perhaps the name of the blog didn’t conjure up a feminine vibe. Perhaps it was my writing style. Perhaps it was my subject matter, which at the very beginning didn’t include anything about dance or fashion or even food.
So I put up the shot of me with the apple, and the rest is history. Minor history, but history nevertheless.
Recently I’ve noticed a dribble of people coming here and calling me “he” again. It didn’t take long for me to hatch a theory as to why. I think it has to do with the way the blog displays on cell phones.
Until I did the redesign over a year ago, my old blog template wasn’t what you’d call mobile-friendly. It used the same format on phones and devices as on desktops, and that meant sometimes that people had to fiddle with it to make it fit, but at least it displayed in exactly the same format as on desktops, the way I wanted it to.
Now with the new template there’s an automatic adjustment that happens when a person views the site on a phone. That’s mostly a good thing. But part of that adjustment is something I don’t like that changes the design: all the extra stuff – the archives and the categories and the search box, as well as my photo – drop down to the bottom of the site. You have to scroll down to find them in the first place, and I doubt most people, especially newcomers, scroll down that far. So for them, my photo is out of sight.
And once again they think I’m a man.
In The Matrix, Neo is male. You’re clearly a Trinity.
Neos, Nea, Neon — Gk. masc, fem, neu gender endings respectively. But how? Would native English speakers have somehow absorbed any inclination through these one way or another? I guess maybe, but can’t put a finger on a mechanism.
I’m constantly assumed to be a man, too. I think my circle of friends (mainly leftist, american jews who [gasp] would never consider voting for, much less keeping an open mind about, conservatives) assumes that to be a conservative thinker, you must be a white, cis heterosexual christian male, and therefore my reasoning is often overlooked in favor of my identity group. Perhaps this applies to you, as well, a little bit?
I think of a man and…
n.n.:
I’ve thought of the Matrix reference, too.
But I can’t imagine how anyone could see the pointe shoe in the topmost photo – which still is at the top, even on cell phones – and think I’m a man.
Sigh.
Unless they think I’m into the Trocks.
Just tell people that you IDENTIFY as a woman.
You come off as way too nonviolent to be a man. LOL
However, you do have some serious reasoning abilities, as do many of the women commenting here, (some of whom I mistook for men, except for “Sharon” of course ) holding the problem up to examine its geometry, and evaluating how these different aspects will affect our liberty interests.
It is that quality then, along with your small “l” libertarianism, that probably cause some to assume that you are a male. Just as long as they don’t notice the ballet stuff.
Here, Neo is not a man, movie character, or a device. Microsoft just announced a new dual screen Surface tablet that they are calling Neo.
Here’s a hypothesis: your interests and approaches to public discussion are somewhat ‘masculine’. Women who blog tend to have a bevy of interests which draw a great deal on mundane life; if they blog on public affairs, they prefer to address things with which they’ve had a palpable interaction. Also, there’s a feminine style of discussion wherein mediating behaviors, OTOHOTO formulations, and ample verbiage to complexify rather than abstract are the mode. Women who do not do this commonly decay into striking poses or emotional rants. I regularly interact with another distaff blogger who isn’t bothered by argument and favors point-by-point presentation (which includes stomping on my insteps). She’s a Navy veteran who grew up on a ranch.
I’ll go with Leah’s hypothesis: the feminist bloc or blocking. That said, you would be well cast to play Trinity.
NB, Ann Althouse, a retired law professor, favors concision and point-by-point, but prefers to present issues and not take sides. She also has a great many posts on things outside public affairs, especially outdoor scenery. One of the better Catholic bloggers back in the day was Amy Welborn, but she was much more the presenter and forum minder than the advocate.
But I can’t imagine how anyone could see the pointe shoe in the topmost photo – which still is at the top, even on cell phones – and think I’m a man.
neo: Speaking as a man, I don’t read that blob of pink ribbons and cloth as much of anything — obviously way too small to be a shoe — so moving on to Churchill, Frost and a Magritte apple, why not a man?
Huxley:
Sometimes velocity matters more than size,
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9954790/ballerina-kick-police-groin-heathrow-airport-spain-jailed/
No, it wasn’t Neo.
If they don’t see your photo, which would require scrolling down to posts four days old, and they don’t look at the top photo, then they might be using the generic male, which used to be the default in English.
But a pointe shoe with pink ribbons does seem like a clue …
You should have my first name.
Sez Lynn Hargrove: “You should have my first name.”
I do. That’s why over the years my handle has been ‘MrLynn’. Not necessary here, as WordPress carries over from my blog.
/LEJ
A high % of the political blogs I follow are female-written, but then I don’t tend to focus on the inside-baseball stuff.
Well, quit yer pleadin’.
“And once again they think I’m a man.
Please follow and like us:”
neo,
The frequent assumption that you are of the masculine persuasion is more basic, you employ reason and logic and traditionally those are thought to be the domain of men.
If Camille Paglia were to anonymously enter into written debate with a liberal/leftist I’d bet that the common perception would be that it is a male debating the liberal/leftist. The same would apply with Ann Coulter.
You, Paglia and Coulter are examples of a currently unusual degree of mental integration between the female and male halves of our brains.
“Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?” Rex Harrison – YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz5w2W-jAY
Inquiring mind, the infrequently encountered ability to combine curiosity with reasoned comments in a polite way. Feminine likely, with due regard to one or two male bloggers who can be charmingly subtle. Congratulations, your comments always invite thought.
Your edited text is so clean and brief. Not repetitious, altho you’re willing to look at different angles. Sarah Hoyt writes too much, as an example. Many other men do, too, but it seems most other women bloggers do.
Althouse is also brief, yet seldom so clear about her own “side”. You give a more consistent version of your bias: conservative / libertarian (small-l) / rationalist (non-Rand). With reasons.
Very very few women have your style; many men are close (except no dance). Actually I’m looking for other bloggers, and even at your bloglist, but not finding alternatives as good as, not to mention even better, than you.
Keep it up.
Please.
(Oh, it was nice to hear your voice, with OK acoustics, but I vastly prefer to read you. So your choice to have few podcasts is good for me, so far.)
Not me.
Why does it matter, in this context?
It’s sad that Neo would have to point out that she is not a man… I appreciate the variety of subjects covered on this blog which cover many interests (e.g., Robert Frost). Keep up the good work!
I appreciate the variety of subjects covered on this blog which cover many interests (e.g., Robert Frost). Keep up the good work!
Why does it matter, in this context?
That’s the point. That Trinity… I mean, Neo, is a feminine female, is an interesting data point to appreciate that men and women are not a monolithic bloc. That said, other than with respect to several physical and mental attributes, sex is a bias, not a prejudice. Still, I think that we are premature, and ill-served, to dispense with a juxtaposition of the sexes.
Tom Grey:
Thanks!
But I can’t say I’ve ever been called “brief” before. 🙂
There was a pulp writer named Leigh Brackett who wrote a hard boiled mystery that Howard Hawks read. Hawks was adapting Raymond Chandler’s the Big Sleep and needed a collaborator for Faulkner. He said get me that guy Brackett.
He was surprised when a woman showed up.
Brackett would later become Hawks’s favorite script writer because she “writes like a man”
Leigh Brackett also wrote the screenplay for the Chandler novel “The Long Goodbye.” Of course, the story is seen through the eyes of the smart but jaded sleuth Philip Marlow. The director liked her unconventional ending so much that he had it written into his contract that the ending must not be changed by the studio.
Matthew:
On the internet nobody knows you’re a dog.
Tommy I did not know that about the movie version of the Long Goodbye.
I get misgendered a bunch, but as I’m a trans….it doesn’t matter in this context.
I had to look at your picture originally to ‘figure it out’.
And, I’d say your too smart to be a man, but given the idiocy of women in general (in the West…can’t speak too much about elsewhere), that doesn’t work either.
I think assumption about political commentary and the Matrix are probably close.
Clearly the pink ballet slippers are just SCREAMING “This blogger is a male!!!!!!”
(Wait, are those toe shoes?)
I dunno … like Nurse Forbush, I’m strictly a female female … and Neo sounds to me just like an intelligent, very-little-nonsense* female. (*At times, Neo, you put up with this’n’that; also, “no-nonsense” sounds to me a little more hard-boiled than I think you are.) :>))
.
I miss your previous photo. :>)
The rather famous psychoanalyst, Lawrence Kubie, when he was a Yale did some free association studies on unknown patients behind screens, etc., and he claimed to be able to tell the sex of the person quite easily by the content of the word-associations. He also had such subjects given blindly androgens and estrogens and found that the associations would change enough so that he could tell which hormone they were on.