Assigning Sex to Numbers and Letters

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was wondering, does anyone else here assign a certain sex to numbers and letters? I don’t think about it but ever since I was a little kid, I always associated letters and single digit numbers (never bothered with higher numbers) with male or female. Not just sex, but with minor personalities as well.

My listing as follows:

A = Female
B = Male
C = M
D = M
E = M
F = M
G = M
H = F (I’s big sister)
I = M
J = F (sister to K, both are like fun loving aunts)
K = F
L = M
M = F (sister to N, both strict)
N = F
O = M (fun loving)
P = F
Q = NEUTRAL (the only one I don’t assign a sex to, queer maybe?)
R = F
S = M
T = M
U = F
V = F
W = F
X = F (kinda goes either way like Q. I imagine X to be a bit on the loony, but fun side.)
Y = F
Z = M (the male version of X)

1 = F
2 = M
3 = M
4 = F
5 = M
6 = M
7 = M
8 = M
9 = F

I could go further but I’m at work and can’t go into much more detail right now. Let me know what you think.

2

Ever heard of synesthesia? Now normally it’s a condition where certain sensations get a bit mixed up with other sensations (like, hearing colors or seeing sounds), but I’ve heard of it being associated with conditions similar to your own feeling of letters and digits having certain sexes. I knew a girl who was absolutely convinced that each letter had a specific color attached to it, for example.

Now was this something you did consciously, or something that just sort of came to you? Does it seem obvious that ‘A’ should be female, or was it more of a choice on your part? If it’s obvious, then I’d call that synesthesia, but that’s just my take on it.

3

I remember reading about synthesia somewhere. A person who had synthesia described an orchestra performance as ‘a riot of colors’ (or something like that) even though there was no special lighting on the stage. The person kept seeing different colours during the performance…

Rubs his ring and wishes for synthesia

4

I do this! Only mine is slightly different from yours.

A - F
B - F
C - M
D - M
E - F
F - F
G - M
H - F
I - M
J - M
K - F
L - F
M - F
N - F
O - M
P - M
Q - M
R - F
S - F
T - F
U - M
V - F
W - F
X - F
Y - F
Z -F

1 - M
2 - F
3 - F
4 - M
5 - F
6 - M
7 - F
8 - F
9 - M
0 - M

Also, colors have gender!

Red - F
Orange - M
Yellow - F
Green - M
Blue - M
Purple - F

I suppose maybe this could be synthesasia, though I’d never really considered it before. For some reason I’d always thought it was normal up until a few years ago.

5

Yes, I’ve heard about synesthesia, and I don’t seem to have it except perhaps mildly in relation to numbers. Mostly, it’s even numbers are female and odd numbers are male, with some exceptions(marked by a *):

0=nueter 0 is neither even nor odd, hence the neuter
1=male
2=female
3= male
4= female
5=male
6=female
7=male
8=nueter* Eight gets confused by 9 “flipping”
9=female * I think 9 doesn’t follow the rule because it looks so much like a 6. 10=male* Ten “inherits” its masculinity from its first digit (1).
11= neuter*
12=female

With higher numbers, the assoiations aren’t quite so strong, but numbers with all even digits (22, 46) still tend to seem quite feminine to me.

6

It’s a synesthetic thing, yep (though not all synesthetes assign sex to letters and numbers, days of the week, etc.) Do you assign color to letters and numbers as well? Sound? Taste? Texture?

7

Wow, I just remembered that I assign gender to the days of the week, too!
Mon. - M
Tues. - F
Wed. - M
Thurs. - F
Fri. - M
Sat. - F
Sun. - F
No colors or sounds or anything else associated though, just genders.

8

I always think of numbers and months as having colors:

1-blue-purple or black
2-green
3-orange or yellow
4-light to medium blue
5-red
6-purple
7-flourescant green
8-blue-purple or black
9-white
10- ~50% gray

January-white
February- deep brownish-red
March-white
April-purple
May-yellow-green
June-deep green
July-deep green or red
August-gold or amber, sometimes yellow
September- purple
October- darker gold and amber colors; orange
November- dark blue (but not purple like April)
December- red or white
I think a lot of this stems from the particular colors of the number and month posters scattered around the room when I was in Kindergarten.

9

Numbers have genders and personalities

1=male - president-like, top dog
2=female regular person
3=male regular person
4=female regular person
5=male - some sort of authority figure, father-like
6=female - some sort of authority figure, mother-like
7=male - Hero - like superman or hero warrior
8=male - flunky of number 9
9=male - bad guy - Evil nemisis of 7

I have no idea where I got these ideas, but I’ve had them for as long as I can remember. I have vague memories of making up little stories about them, but otherwise I don’t know where it came from. I remember my mom looking at me like I was a bit daft, but she didn’t discourge me from think it and encouraged my creativity.

I didn’t know anyone else did this! I have heard of synesthesia, but I didn’t know it had to do with this oddity. How interesting.

10

I don’t assign sexes, but the numbers definitely have personalities. 5 is nice, but 7 is a real ass.

11

69?

12

Girls - A, C, K, P, Q, R, 6, 9

All the rest of the alphanumeric characters are boys.

Also, the girl colors are Orange, Yellow, and Green. That leaves Red, Blue and Purple as boys. Hues, like pink and lavender, I’m not going to get into.

13

I do this with numbers, and after I grew up I realized the numbers had grown up too. 5 used to be a real bitch, but she’s matured a bit. I have no idea what this means.

Oh, and what about relationships? 6 is not in fact with 9, she’s with 8. They’ve got that whole high school sweetheart thing going and are the only two dating numbers, although 7 is jealous.

14

A - male
B - female
C - male
D - female
E - male
F - male
G - male
H - female
I - male
J - male
K - female
L - male
M - female
N - female
O - male
P - female
Q - male
R - female
S - female
T - male
U - female
V - female
W - female
X - female
Y - female
Z - male

1 - male
2 - male
3 - male
4 - male
5 - female
6 - female
7 - male
8 - female
9 - female
0/10 - male
(Higher numbers are the same gender as their terminal digit.)

Monday - male
Tuesday - female
Wednesday - male
Thursday - female
Friday - male
Saturday - female
Sunday - female

January - female
February - female
March - male
April - female
May - female
June - female
July - female
August - male
September - female
October - male
November - female
December - male
(These associations are much weaker than the others for some reason – I found myself wondering whether April was a boy or a girl and while I know that I always used to think of June as female, I sometimes wonder if I might be mistaken.)

Red - female
Blue - male
Yellow - female
Green - male
Orange - female
Purple - female
White - male
Black - male
Brown - male

–Cliffy

15

2 a girl? You people are touched in the head.

–Cliffy

16

Synaesthesia is when one sense envokes another in literature.

17

Jeez, assigning numbers gender? They obviously go by color. :dubious: Any other method is just plain crazy

1: Blue
2: Dark foresty green
3: Yellow
4: Red
5: Yellow
6: Orange
7: Light Blue
8: Lavender
9: Light pink
0,10: Gray
11-19 are the color of their last number, while the rest of the two digit numbers go by the color of the first number.

18

Hmm, I can see how 2 would be female… 1 would have to be male, though, as would 9. For the most part the other numbers and most letters could be either to me. Oh but Q and R are most definitely male.

However, they face different directions, and for some it depends on case. J, Z, a, d, g, j, q, u, z, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 all face left, although g, q, 4, and 9 are looking at the reader. All the symmetrical letters and numbers are facing the reader. The others all face right, but B, D, N, P, Q, R, b, and p are facing right and looking at the reader. (Hmm, there’s a pattern here.)

Years ago when I first played around with diffraction gratings, I memorized the color of each wavelength in the visible spectrum. So for instance, the numbers .6, 600, and 6000 (referring to microns, nanometers and angstroms) are reddish orange and could never be anything but a specific shade of reddish orange. Kinda similar to synaesthesia but acquired instead of inborn.

Maybe synaesthesia is something that everyone has in varying degrees? Could it be possible to be only weakly synaesthetic?

19

Wow! It’s pretty cool that so many other people do the same thing. I didn’t think I was the only one but I never talked to anyone else about it. It’s not something that comes up during a conversation.

I’ve never assigned colors to anything but I think it’s cool. I feel in a certain sense, I’m color blind that way. In the same way that I love music but I feel like I’m tone deaf. I feel like I see things in black and white. :frowning:

I’ve heard of synesthesia but I never put two and two together. I’ve done this ever since I was a little boy. I remember that once as a small child, I went thru each letter and number and thought about what gender they were. I didn’t make up just out of the blue that 2 was male and P was female. It’s just how it is. Like seeing a woman and knowing that she’s female. Very obvious.

I always felt that this assigning gender to letters and numbers somehow relates to how some languages have either a masculine or a feminine ‘sex’ for certain words for no apparent rhyme or reason.

20

Just wanted to argue that Q is definitely female… (as in queen)