I’m sorry that happened to you and I do wish that GQ was relatively snark free. But that said, that was pretty mild for the Dope and although I understand you not wanting to change your sensitivity settings, you may want to invest in some compartmentalized snark repellant. You know, a “consider the source” attitude or the like. It’s certainly helped me when I’ve been overly invested in the opinions of people I’d never know. Good luck though, no matter what.
And to **colonial[/]: This is not a “chat” room. It’s a message board. Understand that and maybe your expectations might become more in line with reality.
What you considered to be snark was simply people trying to figure out what the heck you were talking about. Your first sentence was kind of “out there”, and the next sentences, instead of clarifying it, made it more incomprehensible: “I’ve always been led to believe that the Moon is a “she,” but I’m not so sure about the Sun. And I’d like to have a cite to back it up.” Rather than referring to literature or symbology, you made it sound like it was a quantifiable, verifiable, citeable truth that simply needed a quick fact check. You forget how literal-minded people here can be. If that many people have trouble figuring out what you’re trying to ask, don’t blame them for not getting you until you’ve finally reformulated what you’re trying to ask, which is all they were asking of you. It really sounded like one of ralph124’s bizarro questions coming out of nowhere. Stomping off in a huff because 2 posts didn’t answer you the way you wanted, while ignoring all the *many *others who went to considerable trouble to look it up for you really made you seem ridiculously needy. Honestly, calling it snark is pretty over the top.
I never go to GQ because of this. It seems as if half of the questions asked are replied to with some snotty version of “google is your friend”. You’re almost better off posting your questions in IMHO, (even if it’s an actual general question). People tend to be more interested in semi-off the wall questions and usually don’t snark too much.
Seems really weird to me that they react that way, because when you think about it, they’re giving snark to attempt to prevent someone from “wasting their time”. But then they spend all that time being all snotty about whatever the question may be, and raking the poor OP over the coals instead of simply pointing someone in the right direction or the right forum, or by even just ignoring the questions they find to be such a waste of their time.
smaje1, you’re original question is crystal clear. How else would someone have you ask it? What are the genders generally attributed to the heavenly bodies known as the Sun and the Moon? How is that confusing? This is what you wanted to find out, right?
It can be paraphrased, I just did it; but what part of “Does anyone have citeable information about whether the Sun and the Moon are considered either masculine or feminine?” does anyone really not understand?
Tell you what, you don’t need to re-adjust the way you ask questions. Neither, in my estimation, do you need to be less sensitive. You just need to draw a mental picture of condescending bullies in your mind, a picture of insecure dweebs, typing frantically on their laptops in their wives sewing rooms or parents basements, trying to exert some dominance over someone else in the ether of cyberspace, since they can’t seem to do the same in real life.
Not that I’m describing any SDMB members that way (I’d never do that) … it’s just an effective way to derail the effect of unwarranted criticism. You know, like visualizing your audience naked to counter stage-fright.
ps…Your question was perfectly understandable. The statement “I’ve been led to understand/believe” clearly means what a person has read, stories they’ve heard, shows they might have seen, etc. People claiming otherwise are being purposely obtuse.
I beg to differ… he/she could have asked if Kumquats are Caucasian and Asparagus Hispanic… and I need cites to make sure it is officially agreed upon throughout all cultures, and it would have made just as much sense to me.
Several people gave you good answers based on gender based languages, and others pretty much scratched their heads and said… “Huh?” The snark level was at the very bottom of the scale in my opinion.
You say the world needs more sensitive people and I would agree. There is a big difference between sensitive and overly sensitive though. Nobody likes walking on egg shells afraid that a simple funny remark can be misconstrued into a perceived insult.
I hope my comments above don’t cause you undo concern or stress.
The problem is that some questions have no clear answer. I don’t like that fact either. In fact, I hate it. Unfortunately, that’s the way life works. There is no general agreement around the world about whether to consider the moon and the sun as male or female. There is no obvious subset of cultures in which the gender of them is definitely one or the other. I’m sorry. I know that you don’t like this, but there is no way to reformulate your question so that it has a clear answer.
Man, that is the most disappointingly snark-free thread I have ever encountered on this board. I expected better of you people! I almost dozed off when I got to the part where people started providing factual examples of the way different languages handle gender and celestial objects. And then someone went and brought up classical mythology! The nerve of those posters - not a decent laugh in the bunch!
You started with the question: Does anyone have citeable information about whether the Sun and the Moon are considered either masculine or feminine?
And you got answers about
[ul]
[li]Spanish[/li][li]Quechua [/li][li]languages in general[/li][/ul]
And this was BEFORE you came in to clarify your intent.
Then you got answers about:
[ul]
[li]Wikipedia (with a cite like you asked)[/li][li]western culture[/li][li]Hebrew[/li][li]Norwegian [/li][li]Tolkien’s Silmarillion[/li][li]Germanic[/li][li]Anglo-Saxon[/li][li]Old English[/li][/ul]
then you come in complaining about the “inane amount of snarkiness received”
Then responses about
[ul]
[li]Germanic (again)[/li][li]Norse (with cites!)[/li][li]Spanish [/li][li]Indo-European[/li][li]Shinto[/li][li]Songs[/li][li]Poems[/li][li]Irish[/li][li]Welsh and Breton[/li][li]A correction on a previous Hebrew related post[/li][/ul]
And it was at this point you then make THIS thread, complaining about how unhelpful the other thread has been.
So my response to all this is are you fucking kidding me with this shit?
After reviewing that thread, I agree with this – those responses in the aggregate were not unduly or unnecessarily snarky and the OP was not treated harshly or with disrespect on the whole. As documented above, there were plenty of attempts to offer factual responses and going away with hurt feelings was a disproportionate reaction.
It kinda cracks me up when some of y’all are admonishing me for being so sensitive, when it’s apparent that your own fur has been ruffled by the mere fact that I’ve complained about what I define as “snark” or “meanness.”
Also reminds me of my bully of a big sister who would hit me and then complain that I cried about it to mom or dad: “I didn’t hit you *that *hard.”
To those who are sympathetic or empathetic to my situation, I appreciate it. Some of you have been burned yourselves around here. To those of you who can not even comprehend why I was upset, I can only conclude that we just see things differently – and that’s cool too.
And to you, kind sir/madam who spent so much time gathering the information for your post here, I have (several times) thanked those posters in that thread who did provide me with helpful information. I wasn’t complaining about the people who helped or tried to help; I complained about the people whom I felt were not helpful in the least.
You wanted the “official” answer.
You were told there was no official answer and shown various examples from different cultures.
You didn’t like the fact that there is no official answer.
Some mildly snarky answers.
You get butthurt.
But the people you felt were not helpful were the ones who were completely baffled and were trying to elicit more information from you to figure what you were trying to ask in order to help you. And you’ve acknowledged several times that even you had no clear idea of how to word it in the beginning. You’re being way over the top.
