Using gendered pronouns/names for your unsexed fish?

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pudgeking

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2012
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New York City
I don't like referring my fish as "it," it seems to de-personify them or something like that. So I often use pronouns which are gendered, when I have no clue if it is correct. Sometimes I'll catch myself doing it, but I always end up referring to my fish as "he" when I'm talking about them, unless I know that its a female in which case I would use "she." I will also give my fish gendered names without having discerned the actual gender of the fish.

Anybody else ever thought about this? Like, I bet it has happened to a few of you that you have given your fish masculine names when they were immature and then later find out that it's a female, or vice versa. Or you talk about your fish on the forum as "he" or "guy" and then feel kind of foolish when you realize you haven't sexed the fish yet? Seems pretty common to me... I often see people talk about their immature fish as "little guy" or "dude" etc. as well.

Is doing this disrespectful to the fish?? ignorant? sexist?!? :eek: (probably not I would say, haha, but I have thought about this a few times)

I guess it doesn't matter...


or does it?


sorryabouttherandomtheoreticalquestionthisiswhathappenswheniambakediguess
 
No never thought about this. Generally my fish don't come up in daily conversations. But when taking about my fish to my family members who don't know the types of fish I have or know which fish I'm referring to. I normally say the Big silver one or the big long one or the Black one. I will describe how they look is easier for them to know which fish I am talking about lol. Most times I just point That one keeps missing with That one LOL
 
MyGiants said:
No never thought about this. Generally my fish don't come up in daily conversations. But when taking about my fish to my family members who don't know the types of fish I have or know which fish I'm referring to. I normally say the Big silver one or the big long one or the Black one. I will describe how they look is easier for them to know which fish I am talking about lol. Most times I just point That one keeps missing with That one LOL
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That's how I have to talk to my family lol. Like this for example. The little striped one is biting the orange one's tail. Which could somehow translate to "The convict is fighting the blood parrot." But back to the question. Yeah I always call my fish a "He" or "She" randomly. When I was 3 I named my betta Sasha only to find out it was a male betta. I don't really think it's sexist or ignorant because It's just a fish it's not like it knows that's a boy or girl name.(Unless you have a really smart fish) But now I don't name most of my fish because it's hard to keep track of which one's which. Even my cichlids that have like one in a tank I still haven't come up with names for them after a year. So I just stick with calling them a he or she even if the fish is unsexed because it's just to "go-to" name I think of. Now I just realized I am really getting bored typing this much. Well this is getting :topic: out of nowhere. Ok well I better shut up now.
 
^ Going by 'he' is a natural default for people since it has been ingrained in us for so long. Everything we read defaults to 'he' if it talks about people in general, you never read 'she' in instructions or papers unless it specifically refers to a female person only. When I wrote a paper for school on it I found references that even cited there has to be 5 females factors to every 1 male factor for a person to see someone as female - which makes it much easier for a female to be perceived as a male than a male to be perceived as a female. That's a whole different subject, but it does tie back to this subject because in fish we can't easily tell if they are male or female in many species, so our brain places a 'he' marker on the fish until it can be proven female.

Of course there are people that just pick a gender for their fish based on what they want, but that is a decided action made by the person and not the brain just assigning a gender like I mentioned.
 
Figured as much but just making sure.
 
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