Way back in the early days of the millennium, I chose ModernWizard as a screen name, a practice that I have continued over the past 10+ years to create a coherent online identity.  I specifically chose it because it combines connotations of magic and fantasy with a more up-to-date sensibility. I also specifically chose it because it’s not gender-marked, although, now that I think about it, most people think "wizard" to be a gender-marked word, the male equivalent to "witch." Also informing my choice was a T-shirt I had at that time with glow-in-the-dark constellations, which, I decided, would be appropriate for a modern wizard’s garb, as opposed to the stylized astronomical symbols of yore. ^_^

Anyway, people who don’t know me continually assume that I’m a guy. Well, let me rephrase that — straight cis white dudes continually assume I’m one of them by using masculine pronouns on trade references or calling me sir. It is interesting that women do not do this.

I could go off onto a whole tangent about the gendered ways in which people write only and how people interpret other people’s gender from what they write [For example, I very rarely see masculine-identified people use ^_^. :), 🙁 and :p, yes, but ^_^, no. :p ] and what happens when one reads "conflicting" cues. I don’t wanna, though. The end.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1527439.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.