Member-only story
The Junk of Gender
Why gender is almost always irrelevant
Note: Revised in January 2021 to include the Christine Elverson ey/em construction.
My latest book, Famine in the Bullpen, called upon me to provide numerous examples of individuals demonstrating proper engineering method. In these stories, an individual would have an idea regarding how to solve a complex problem. That individual would then engage in one of the behaviors that would help me to fully illuminate the discipline. I am trying to revitalize an interest in engineering and in order for that to happen, my reader needs to be provided with stories to which that reader, regardless their gender, could relate. I wanted my reader to feel the feelings and think the thoughts of the innovating engineer.
In none of those stories was it necessary that the person be understood as male or female. The gender of that character was utterly irrelevant as is true in almost all cases. I had a choice and my choice was that of the inexcusable coward: I alternated masculine and feminine pronouns. I would tell a story about a he and next about a she. That choice was simply wrong and yet, I remained uncertain what the correct choice may have been.
We fall back to gender-specificity simply because we are used to it. In most conversations about people, the gender is irrelevant. When I…
