AIBU to not like inanimate objects being called 'she'?

[LylaLee]

I'm not on a campaign or anything, but this is just something that annoys me and I came to ask if IABU to find it jarring/grating.

I know that historically ships get called 'she' and that already annoyed me.

But now I'm seeing it everywhere. On YouTube someone gets a new belt: 'she's going to look great'.

On Instagram, someone's sewn a dress = 'she fits really well.'

Someone gets a wig: 'she looks really natural'.

It's almost as if 'female = an item to serve/be used/passively be of service'.

Oh, you say, they're just being playful and whimsical, anthropomorphising the object.

But they are never, ever, ever called 'he'. I've never heard it.

AIBU?

Apart from Hetty, of course. We can tell she’s a girl as she’s pink and has eyelashes.

I call all my houseplants he. No idea why but I have done for ages

I personally can't save I've experienced this, beyond the obvious examples. We have lots of household items/cars/machinery that have names and they are equally male and female.

In the context of social media/vlogging, etc. in terms of fashion, if that is where you are seeing this, is it because the content creators are women? Because while I am not personally one to ever show off my belt or handbag or whatever on IG, if I did, and I was going to assign them a gender, because I'm a woman, it would be 'she' because it seems creepy frankly to have a belt or a shirt or a handbag called 'Richard' or 'Bob'.

All my sewing machines have been "she" apart from the one that was a piece of crap.

I think you should start a petition to rename Mother Nature to father nature.

It seems more of a new thing. As PP said, more from reality TV.

And on YouTube I've noticed it with clothes and wigs.

My robot hoover is Male, Cyril. I love him!

This has driven me mad since I was a kid, I just never got why, and for some reason it just grinds my gears.

OP, never, ever learn a foreign language. French or German will blow your mind!

What a lot of misogynistic, essentialising bollockology.

Ships, cars, countries etc are all 'it' to me.

Mine is a Henry, so obviously I treat him like part of the family.

Other than that, yeah, it'd be weird.

I’m not sure I understand why gendering nouns annoys you.

Did you not learn French at school?

This ^

I'm from Somerset, all inanimate objects are referred to as 'he' except maybe vehicles. I still call everything 'he'.

Yabu.

With the exception of the Naval comment, I have lietrally never seen this anywhere, never mind seeing it everywhere. Perhaps you should stay off social media for a bit?

I’ve just asked Alexa what gender they are: ‘as an AI, I don not have a gender’. I then asked what Alexas pronouns are: As an AI I do not have a preference’. She will be referred as a them, seeing as he is not bothered. 😂😂

Well, there's already Father time, so there's a balance - the two most powerful forces.

I name almost every expensive or important item. I had a very debonair umbrella once with gold coloured fittings that I called Oscar, afterOscar Wilde.

Our cars are always male because they're so grumpy, especially in bad weather, and you have to pamper them to get any flaming work out of them, and they seem to look for excuses to avoid jobs they dislike. I should probably watch that around DS.... in our house female items tend to be the better looking items that you can rely on, like my stand mixer.

Same in Wilts. Lots of older people say things like "there he be" when they're talking about an inanimate object.

I am familiar with gendered languages and speak more than one. I'm talking about a recent YouTube/Instagram trend.

It annoys me as well. Growing up it seemed to be used mostly for objects men were obsessing over, like cars and boats. Definitely always held an air of female objectification to me.

Could not care less

Any femininity ascribed to 'la piscine' does not correspond to the way YouTubers are using it.

And the YouTubes don't give every single object they refer to a gender. Only the wig.

It bothers me far more when people describe their pet animal as 'it' rather than 'he' or 'she'. I was talking to a friend at a hobby group about cats recently, and she described her cat as 'it' throughout the conversation. Very odd.

There weren't many laughs available during Covid, but I did find it amusing that the Institut Francais got in a tangle over whether Covid was masculine - le virus, or feminine - la maladie (disease), being Coronavirus disease.

Thanks for explaining, I can see why I wouldn't understand it, as I don't really bother with instagram or youtube.