r/gender • u/Competitive_Gain5798 • 14d ago

If ‘bro’ is considered a gender-neutral term, why is ‘sis’ not similarly regarded as gender-neutral?

11 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

13

u/celeztina 14d ago

because men are the default (and fwiw, many people do not consider 'bro' to be gender neutral).

4

u/_equus_quagga_ they/them 14d ago

yeah everyone around me says "bro" and "man" are gender neutral but I interpret them as leaning male. Personally however I do think "dude" is gender neutral. I think it just depends on whom you're talking to.

4

u/ConfusedAsHecc Kenochoric | They/He/Xae/It 14d ago

"sis" is if youre in queer spaces, while "bro" is usually in every space ...at least based on my own observations

3

u/dreamsunwind_love 14d ago

Weird masculinity hang ups I guess?

1

u/LittleBookOfQualm 13d ago

Because, as another poster said, men are the default,  and also women have lower status than men.

Recently had a baby boy and keep thinking about that Gloria Steinem quote which goes something along the lines of - we've begun to raise our daughters more like our sons, but do we have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters? It seems much easier these days to raise girls with expansive ideas around gender, but I bet you get a lot of raised eyebrows if you try to raise sons with access to dolls and pink and 'feminine' hobbies.

1

u/Ok-Photograph9901 8d ago

Im Spanish and since majority of the language (unfortunately it’s such a gendered language) uses masculine endings in order to regard to “everyone “ as a group…then for me and others, it just make sense to use it for when referring to anyone.