In the interest of a new field of social science, which I hereby dub cybersociolinguistics, I would like to submit the following question to those who peruse and contribute to this nobelest of forums: what’s up with all the “Girls” on this message board?
A few examples (these are off the top of my head, so sorry if some of them ain’t quite right): Girl Face, Moosie Girl, Girl Next Door, Office Girl, Bunny Girl, Glass Girl, neurotrashgrrrl.
I don’t have any gripes about the individual names per se, which are as fine as any; I’m just curious about the trend. After all, you don’t see many (or any?) posters here with “Boy” in their username – no Little Boy Blue, no Sailor Boy, no Boy George (well, ok, there’s mangeorge, if he’s still around). There’s Guano Lad and Uncle Beer, but I don’t see a similar trend in the male names.
I can imagine/speculate that some posters wanted to choose a name that makes it clear that they are female, and “Girl” of course accomplishes this. But there are plenty of other ways to suggest gender via one’s name – there’s Auntie Pam, Flora McFlimsey, PurpleCrackWhore. Falcon.
So … why all the “Girls” here? Not too many years ago, it was all but a federal offense to refer to a grown woman as a (diminutive) “girl”, but is that changing, or what? Is “girl” no longer regarded as diminutive? “You go girl!” Huh? What? Just curious.
To clarify my name, if you even care, I go by chick because it’s not absolutly accepted.
Being in the technical field of computers, about only 10% (last I heard) in the higher technical computer field are women. I add in chick for no other reason than I am a chick…I am not a lady (I cuss too much,) I am not a girl (I have already been there) and I am stuck in the construction world (among other trades) of thinking. 'Spose I coulda chosen techwoman, but somehow I envision a woman dressed in a Wonder Woman type outfit with pointy boobs and able to tackle the world. Somehow this does not fit me. < Wonder Woman…hoo hoo > <—terrible attempt at singing
I am feminine in my own way, but somehow chick works for me best.
BTW, I do have Flower in one of my AOL screen names and Wolf in one of my others…
I say thank god for the “girls”. I remember back in the old BBS days it was almost ALL men. I think that’s why I left it for a long time. It’s nice to know that it’s not just a bunch of us guys sitting around in here talking to each other. (note: You never saw me in the guy stuff thread,did you? Understood?)
“Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few.”
-Tao Te Ching
Democritus: yes, me too. But I was talking about names rather than the presence and participation of women/girls/chicks on the SDMB.
(And damn my typing! Make that “noblest” in the OP.)
I don’t quite understand how the name “Falcon” can be understood to be a female personnage, even though it may have been obvious from her posts.
For a while it seemed we were knee deep with female posters that used screennames that were variations on the word “cat” or “kitten”. I later found that my own sister (who does not post here) also uses a variation of the word “cat” as her web/net name and her email name. - MC