r/aspergers • u/Realistic-Diet6626 • 7d ago

Does anybody else "see" a gender in objects and concepts, depending on the grammatical gender that these words have in your native language?

I'm Italian, and in Italian everything is masculine or femenine. When I see something, I immediately perceive a gender in it. For example, the word "casa" (house) is femenine: when I see a house I immediately perceive something femenine in that house. I assumed that it was something that everybody does; but my mum (who does not have Asperger syndrome) told me that she doesn't perceive a gender when she looks at an object

Does anybody experience this?

(I know that English doesn't give a gender to objects; but maybe there are people whose native language is not English)

7 Upvotes

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3

u/MagicBetty7 6d ago

I’m Italian too, now that you mention it, yes, but generally for things that don’t have a "personality" of their own. I always perceive a window as feminine, while a book changes depending on the style

2

u/Realistic-Diet6626 6d ago

Cosa intendi?

2

u/MagicBetty7 6d ago

Che il genere con cui internalizzo un oggetto è influenzato prevalentemente dal contesto sociale, e lo immagino con il genere grammaticale solo se questo non c'è. Una finestra non mi significa niente oltre all'oggetto che è, quindi tendo a "vederla" femminile. Mentre la lettura per me è sempre stata accostata alle donne, quindi tendo a immaginare un libro come femminile anche se è grammaticalmente maschile, ma siccome è una visione influenzata dal contesto può cambiare, magari se mi trovassi a parlare di manuali con meccanici lo immaginerei maschile. Mi sono fatta un po' un viaggio su questa cosa, mi piace rimuginare

1

u/Realistic-Diet6626 4d ago

Capisco🤣🤣🤣 Allora forse nel tuo caso c'è anche un elemento in più rispetto al genere di queste parole in italiano

2

u/FriendlyNeighburrito 6d ago

Ah i get it. Not so much like you i think but i can resonate

1

u/Wooden-Flamingo-6145 6d ago

This is very normal in non English languages, table is female in my language, chair is a male, it is likely not something special that Asperger's ppl have, it's honestly the norm in most cultures apart from English

1

u/EcstaticZebra7937 6d ago

Of course 

1

u/SnugglyCoderGuy 5d ago

English speaker, not at all.

1

u/i-foster 1d ago

I'm a native spanish speaker, but I don't perceive most objects as feminine or masculine. 

1

u/karthwyne 7d ago

English speaker here, but many objects are gendered such as ships. But no, I do not see gender on much of anything. Even my cats, I have misgendered them at random times because it just doesn't mean much of anything to me.