There's another component to this. The assumption that everyone is heterosexual overrules the assumption that everyone is a man. If an OP mentions their boyfriend/husband, then everyone will assume they are a woman.
Its the most likely scenario. The world population is 50/50 men and women, but on Reddit, men are far more prevalent. With only ≈ 8% of the world being LGBT, its FAR more likely that a random encounter/story on reddit will include straight people. It would be nonsense to assume an outlier instead.
You say that like you don’t make assumptions hundreds of times a day about everyone and everything. Every conversation you’ve ever had is built on assumptions. You’ll assume things about me reading this comment. Really the thing to do is both sides should be open and understanding once the correct information is available.
Did I say not to make any assumptions about anything ever? No. I suggested 2 very specific things that are generally not necessary or beneficial to assume. It is a very simple habit to break and is generally more beneficial to break that habit than to maintain it.
When I was a kid, text books and the like still used he for everyone. It was the default settings for people to just assume male in the US. Misogyny is living inside many still. It's not just a Reddit thing.
I just hate that English itself is so gendered. I'm Finnish and we don't have gendered pronouns. Kinda like if English never had he or she but just only they. Just so much easier and nicer.
English isn't particularly gendered- it's really just the 3rd person pronouns. Most gendered terms have a neutral version. The romance languages are exponentially worse in that regard.
I’ve actually started implying im a man just because people are genuinely less rude or critical… i notice i get a lot more hateful attention then good when my post implies im a girl rather than a guy… kinda unfortunate but what can i really do🤷♀️
Because the behavioral patterns of the entire website still make it seem like the majority is male. You can observe this behavior in subs where people post pics of themselves. Men's pics are usually ignored / barely get engagement while women's pics get thrice the engagement by default, meaning while the userbase majority is pretty equal, the majority that interacts socially on reddit is still male while women predominantly just lurk instead of interacting. Hence the collective assumption
Things are a lot better than they used to be, sadly. I'm a woman that's been on the internet since the very beginning of main stream internet, and the shit we had to go through to not get constant death threats just trying to go into male dominated spaces was insane.
Especially the gaming, robotics, and anime community. I've been doxxed, stalked, harassed, given death threats. Just for having the audacity of being a woman. If I didn't know everything there is to know about X or Y then I was harassed or put down. Called a slut or people would find my pictures and try to edit them to look suggestive, and then try to black mail me.
I can have conversations and get included now in spaces without being harassed, there's a lot more protection in communities than there used to be but...that's about it.
A lot of subs lean heavily male and the default user is assumed to be a man but if you go into a more women-dominated subreddit it swings the other way and everyone will be assumed to be a girl unless they state otherwise
The old thing of the default of being a man. So you are a man unless proven otherwise. And in gendered languages one tends to use "he" if the sex of the person is unknowns, as they don't have a "they" (they have "male they" and "female they").
G.I.R.L = Guy In Real Life. It's an ild internet accronym.
lmaoo life as a man sucks -- why i think people assume im a man is because they always think i need a girlfriend or i exhibit behavioral patterns of a man such as being driven by hormones or creepy behavior etc
i'm a woman too and my experience is identical. not to mention not only does everyone assume i'm a man but also that i'm american when i'm neither and i NEVER imply that i'm either
The people who assume this tend to be American I find (at least, the people that vocalise it). Americans assume everyone else here is American and male.
I personally won't use any gendered words unless I for sure know the person's gender. Most of the time it isn't relevant to the discussion anyways. (at least in the subreddits I visit)
I don't even leave a pic on my profile here, to even slightly indicate my gender. I actually don't care who thinks I am male or female...on REDDIT lol. I don't even correct others if they "bro" or "dude" me. Sometimes, I make it more clear that the thoughts/opinions are coming from a woman, but that is more rare. If they want to ASSume every single thought typed here is male, they can have at.
ive asked in the advice community for advice on how to tell my brother about his girlfriend's red flags or what his girlfriend does that makes me uncomfortable -- then theres how to ask for someones name in this community
Actually there was a fascinating study on this! Our brains automatically assign gender to usernames and writing styles! So one of those two! Or your pfp
Some reason I generally assume male, somewhere between 20-30. I’ve responded more than once on here though and have been given assumption of a woman. When I respond to people, unless it was stated, I try to use gender neutral or non-gendered languages.
I had the opposite issue to begin with. Being non-binary, people assumed I was AFAB, for about six months. I wouldn’t have cared, except for the straight guys who were flirting with me only to get pissed off at me because they made a stupid assumption (I’m gay, so…), but in the end, I made sure I had face pics available to be seen, but you can lead a horse to water 😂😂😂
Back in the old days, these kinds of sites were mostly male. Idk why. You can find old polls for just about anything that showed certain sites had certain demographics.
I think Tumblr was mostly female and 4chan was mostly male. Reddit was more equal but still mostly male.
Any time I use a neutral profile picture on reddit my comments are responded to WAY more respectfully and often. If I indicate I am female in any way, engagement degrades and I get argued with far more often.
This has been common since the Internet began, basically. I remember back in the 90s people asking "girl or G.I.R.L.?" meaning "Guy In Real Life". And it honestly doesn't matter how you act, or the username or profile pic you use, some people will always assume you're a dude, regardless. I do think it's gotten less common in recent years, or maybe it just seems that way because I'm not as active online and in MMOs as I used to be.
Theres an old standard om the internet that meant (forgive my paraphrasing, it was one of the "rules of the internet" and i dont feel like looking it up atm) that there was no girls on the internet and if someone says they are then they're lying. This is obviously untrue nowadays, but the energy the statement held still has a stake in today's society internet-wise. Pair that with the idea of male being "default" and you get this kind of line of thinking
Pretty much everyone online (not just Reddit) assumes I’m a man also, for me I think it’s because I have a masculine username and I‘m not very feminine.
I've had the opposite because of my little reddit character. I used to browse r/rateme and guys would message me asking me to rate them. I'd be like "sure, but I'm a straight dude" and they would send it anyway
The internet has been like that since at least the late 90s. For my first username (AOL, fwiw), my friend who'd had one for a while already recommended I include something feminine and the last two digits of my birth year.
I think American men just think it does. There's lots of women and people from other parts of the world on here too, I think they just assume everyone else is an American man if they themselves are.
I think it’s just the default. I’m guilty of it too, even as a woman. Unless you specify otherwise, I think most people just assume you’re male and American.
The real answer is just statistics. About 60% of the sites user base is male. So it's a safe assumption.
It's like everyone always assumes someone is from the US. Something like 40% of the sites used are from the US. Meaning that its generally a "safe bet" to assume someone on reddit is an American man lol.
most of the time when i post or comment on a thread, someone brings up something that references behavioral patterns of guys such as being driven by hormones, needing a girlfriend, etc
63.6% of Redditors are men, and it used to be way more. Even now, it very much depends on the subs you are hanging out in. Sub subs skew very heavily toward one gender or another. But in the absence of any indicator from the user name/profile pic/profile text/etc, chances are any given person is likely to be male, unless you are in a sub more populated by women.
Without a profile pic or saying something inherently feminine the default assumption is male, though it depends on the subreddit. Also I would guess women are more likely to have a profile picture/avatar
Because the Majority of Users on this platform are male and women only make up around 30%. The largest amount of uses on reddit are 18 to 20 year old Male Americans. And the platform is dominated by them on English speaking subs.
A) your avatar looks like the male version so yea it’s kinda lol you have to go off of If you do know someone
B) Reddit is global, lots of languages are gendered. So the default is “him/man” for a lot even tho it should, in English at least, be “them/their”. But it doesn’t translate well sometimes and also: ppl make mistakes.
I also default to “him” until I have more info, but that’s bc I’m German and it’s how my brain works sometimes, it’s not malicious and I’m also not a man lmao
That's because Reddit has always just been an anonymous internet forum. Curating profiles is still somewhat new in an attempt to become more like other social media.
But why would I want to look at profiles? The internet should be anonymous, I don't want to know who I'm talking to, just react to what they are saying in a post/comment. I don't even look at avatars or usernames tbh.
To me you're all generic western men aged 16-35 and I don't care to learn otherwise unless it's relevant to the topic, in which case you should mention it.
It's not something I look for or care about really. I did grow up in the "BTW I'm a girl" days and that really didn't do anything positive either.
If you want a more reasonable answer, scams probably made it into something that you can equate to: "I'll believe it when I see it" whether it be catfishes, dudes dressing as girls in online games to make more friends or get more attention, or people who aren't actually cis. That last part isn't a scam, but it'll be rude to ask and people rather wouldn't have to ask.
I've got a really good goth girl avatar on some old website I haven't been on for a year. It wasn't made for the sake of scams, girls just have better clothes. I've made few friends on there solely because of the assumption that I was a woman and those don't last long when I tell em or they find out when adding me elsewhere.
I don't know if I ever want friends only based on the idea of me being a particular sex. Because they're likely not my friends and want something else.
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It's because most people seem to assume you're male and American? I've noticed the same and I'm not either of them
The old rule of thumb used to be: assume every redditor is a white male American until you have evidence to the contrary.
It's not meant to be rude, just the most common demographic I guess.
There's another component to this. The assumption that everyone is heterosexual overrules the assumption that everyone is a man. If an OP mentions their boyfriend/husband, then everyone will assume they are a woman.
Its the most likely scenario. The world population is 50/50 men and women, but on Reddit, men are far more prevalent. With only ≈ 8% of the world being LGBT, its FAR more likely that a random encounter/story on reddit will include straight people. It would be nonsense to assume an outlier instead.
You could just, like, not assume anything about a person's gender or sexuality instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You say that like you don’t make assumptions hundreds of times a day about everyone and everything. Every conversation you’ve ever had is built on assumptions. You’ll assume things about me reading this comment. Really the thing to do is both sides should be open and understanding once the correct information is available.
Did I say not to make any assumptions about anything ever? No. I suggested 2 very specific things that are generally not necessary or beneficial to assume. It is a very simple habit to break and is generally more beneficial to break that habit than to maintain it.
If it was an issue, then I would. But its not, so i'm good.
Yea, same experience for whatever reason(s)..
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No doubt you are out there, but it's factually male-dominant lol
Just checked this year's reddit stats (here) and it's 65% male
That's easily like 30% of reddit users. So it just makes sense to assume it
You can see countries from which people see your posts and comments, and to me it's always like 50% Americans
It's common knowledge that on reddit, men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents.
Ha!
You’re definitely not the only one who feels this way. Reddit does tend to default to ‘guy’ unless stated otherwise.
Not just reddit.
When I was a kid, text books and the like still used he for everyone. It was the default settings for people to just assume male in the US. Misogyny is living inside many still. It's not just a Reddit thing.
I just hate that English itself is so gendered. I'm Finnish and we don't have gendered pronouns. Kinda like if English never had he or she but just only they. Just so much easier and nicer.
English isn't particularly gendered- it's really just the 3rd person pronouns. Most gendered terms have a neutral version. The romance languages are exponentially worse in that regard.
I'm not even necessarily saying that but I just kinda hate gendered pronouns. I mean other gendered stuff is even dumber imo but ehh
Yeah its like that in turkish too i heard in french even the objects have genders, i cant believe how weird would it be to learn it for the first time
I’ve actually started implying im a man just because people are genuinely less rude or critical… i notice i get a lot more hateful attention then good when my post implies im a girl rather than a guy… kinda unfortunate but what can i really do🤷♀️
My username literally has Mrs in it, and I've still had replies to comments calling me ''bro/man' etc
I almost never read user names shrug
My classmates who are young women have started calling everyone including each other "bro" I think it's becoming like "dude".
Yes yes, some of us are absolute cycle paths and will knowingly use dude/bro/man as gender neutral terms
... I did a double take on cycle path lmao.
About 60% of users on here are men, which is less than I thought it would be
10% identify as “other,” leaving only a confirmed 30% as women.
I have a hunch the number of active users trends much higher as male.
Because the behavioral patterns of the entire website still make it seem like the majority is male. You can observe this behavior in subs where people post pics of themselves. Men's pics are usually ignored / barely get engagement while women's pics get thrice the engagement by default, meaning while the userbase majority is pretty equal, the majority that interacts socially on reddit is still male while women predominantly just lurk instead of interacting. Hence the collective assumption
The world's always defaulted to men, so obviously that's how the internet is gonna work
Which is so dumb since half the population are women. Maybe one day we'll decide to come out of the dark ages
While that is true, only about 30% of Reddit users identify as women.
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/reddit-users
I was referring to half the population of the world, not Reddit. You might need to take a break from Reddit if you consider it the world, lol.
I wasn’t disagreeing with you, just saying the percent of the population of users aren’t the same as the population of Earth.
I love how they completely missed your point then acts like some asshole 😂
Thank you. I thought I was taking crazy pills for a second!
Things are a lot better than they used to be, sadly. I'm a woman that's been on the internet since the very beginning of main stream internet, and the shit we had to go through to not get constant death threats just trying to go into male dominated spaces was insane.
Especially the gaming, robotics, and anime community. I've been doxxed, stalked, harassed, given death threats. Just for having the audacity of being a woman. If I didn't know everything there is to know about X or Y then I was harassed or put down. Called a slut or people would find my pictures and try to edit them to look suggestive, and then try to black mail me.
I can have conversations and get included now in spaces without being harassed, there's a lot more protection in communities than there used to be but...that's about it.
We still have a long way to go.
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Agreed. Except where the subreddit topic would indicate otherwise (teaching, knitting).
It's simply reflecting society. The default is assumed to be men.
A lot of subs lean heavily male and the default user is assumed to be a man but if you go into a more women-dominated subreddit it swings the other way and everyone will be assumed to be a girl unless they state otherwise
Most people assume I'm a woman, maybe it's the way I type lol
...or your profile pic
Really, I just thought it was cute, and like the hair reminds me of goku, plus golden tears and shitt
I'm assumed to be a man all the time, too. I think Reddit is just seen as a dude thing. (I always thought it was)
The old thing of the default of being a man. So you are a man unless proven otherwise. And in gendered languages one tends to use "he" if the sex of the person is unknowns, as they don't have a "they" (they have "male they" and "female they").
G.I.R.L = Guy In Real Life. It's an ild internet accronym.
Sup dude, how’s life as a man?
It’s hard to answer without knowing why you think people assume you’re a man, and what you said in that context.
lmaoo life as a man sucks -- why i think people assume im a man is because they always think i need a girlfriend or i exhibit behavioral patterns of a man such as being driven by hormones or creepy behavior etc
Hey now. Nothing about needing a girlfriend says you have to be a man. Maybe it's just stereotyping
Maybe you give of lesbian vibes.
It's just misogyny, the default humanist subject is a man/male.
There are A LOT of ladies on reddit, of all ages, from all over the world.
Well I’m female. A lot of the subreddits I use have many women. It depends on the subreddit I guess.
Happens to me too
I kind of like it, this way I only have to deal with the regular reddit condescension instead of the condescension + misogyny combo i see sometimes
Some crazy people do lurk and talk shit towards the women they find for some reason.
It is not you. It is them. They always assume we are men, white, cis and Americans.
It is annoying.
Its just casual misogyny hahah, our culture assumes male as default
i'm a woman too and my experience is identical. not to mention not only does everyone assume i'm a man but also that i'm american when i'm neither and i NEVER imply that i'm either
Male defaultism, sadly.
You must be pretty young. Search “there are no girls on the internet rule”.
Rule 30 🛎️
The people who assume this tend to be American I find (at least, the people that vocalise it). Americans assume everyone else here is American and male.
I personally won't use any gendered words unless I for sure know the person's gender. Most of the time it isn't relevant to the discussion anyways. (at least in the subreddits I visit)
I don't even leave a pic on my profile here, to even slightly indicate my gender. I actually don't care who thinks I am male or female...on REDDIT lol. I don't even correct others if they "bro" or "dude" me. Sometimes, I make it more clear that the thoughts/opinions are coming from a woman, but that is more rare. If they want to ASSume every single thought typed here is male, they can have at.
There are no women on the internet. Only men and lovecraftian entities that are trapped in the black magic circles called as "al-go-r-it-ham."
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ive asked in the advice community for advice on how to tell my brother about his girlfriend's red flags or what his girlfriend does that makes me uncomfortable -- then theres how to ask for someones name in this community
Actually there was a fascinating study on this! Our brains automatically assign gender to usernames and writing styles! So one of those two! Or your pfp
Change your avatar thingy to be styled as female and that might help at a first glance
Some reason I generally assume male, somewhere between 20-30. I’ve responded more than once on here though and have been given assumption of a woman. When I respond to people, unless it was stated, I try to use gender neutral or non-gendered languages.
It's the husky voice
It's the stache, bro
I've had the same happen with me we've when I used the reddit avatars.
I had the opposite issue to begin with. Being non-binary, people assumed I was AFAB, for about six months. I wouldn’t have cared, except for the straight guys who were flirting with me only to get pissed off at me because they made a stupid assumption (I’m gay, so…), but in the end, I made sure I had face pics available to be seen, but you can lead a horse to water 😂😂😂
Back in the old days, these kinds of sites were mostly male. Idk why. You can find old polls for just about anything that showed certain sites had certain demographics.
I think Tumblr was mostly female and 4chan was mostly male. Reddit was more equal but still mostly male.
Any time I use a neutral profile picture on reddit my comments are responded to WAY more respectfully and often. If I indicate I am female in any way, engagement degrades and I get argued with far more often.
This has been common since the Internet began, basically. I remember back in the 90s people asking "girl or G.I.R.L.?" meaning "Guy In Real Life". And it honestly doesn't matter how you act, or the username or profile pic you use, some people will always assume you're a dude, regardless. I do think it's gotten less common in recent years, or maybe it just seems that way because I'm not as active online and in MMOs as I used to be.
Theres an old standard om the internet that meant (forgive my paraphrasing, it was one of the "rules of the internet" and i dont feel like looking it up atm) that there was no girls on the internet and if someone says they are then they're lying. This is obviously untrue nowadays, but the energy the statement held still has a stake in today's society internet-wise. Pair that with the idea of male being "default" and you get this kind of line of thinking
I'm just a poorly cooked plate of breakfast but everyone assumes the same thing about me, too
🍳 🥓 🍳
I usually go off the little avatars gender presentation if they have them lol
Pretty much everyone online (not just Reddit) assumes I’m a man also, for me I think it’s because I have a masculine username and I‘m not very feminine.
I've had the opposite because of my little reddit character. I used to browse r/rateme and guys would message me asking me to rate them. I'd be like "sure, but I'm a straight dude" and they would send it anyway
You don’t have a female avatar…
Everything is male until proven otherwise, didnt you know? Theres only men or not men /s
I find it extremely irritating
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_as_norm
The internet has been like that since at least the late 90s. For my first username (AOL, fwiw), my friend who'd had one for a while already recommended I include something feminine and the last two digits of my birth year.
Never again. There are no women on the internet.
Its your bulge in your pants
UwU
Theres a strange variety of women on Reddit. Most of which fit in the categories of gay and OF
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They don’t look most of the time lol. Mine is a girl and I just got called “brother” the other day.
Every female friend I've ever had I've called them "bro" and "dude", and "dawg". Hell I call my wife "bro" everyday.
Brother can be gender neutral! At their roots, aren't words defined by the meaning we take from them?
I'd say it's interchangeable with 'friend' or 'compatriot' or similar.
I thought my avatar was girly-looking, but people assume I’m a man too. That’s just Reddit for you.
Reddit as a whole skews American and male, I think.
I think American men just think it does. There's lots of women and people from other parts of the world on here too, I think they just assume everyone else is an American man if they themselves are.
I’m sure it varies by sub, but there sure are a lot of Americans in the main generic subs like this one.
I’m a woman from New Zealand though :) How about you?
I'm a woman from Austria, has baffled some users on here haha
It’s because it’s blue
🤣🤣🤣 But of course. Blue is for boys, huh? Lmao
I think it’s honestly that simple
I think it’s just the default. I’m guilty of it too, even as a woman. Unless you specify otherwise, I think most people just assume you’re male and American.
same thing happens to me lol some secret hidden internally misogynistic part of me likes it though.
The real answer is just statistics. About 60% of the sites user base is male. So it's a safe assumption.
It's like everyone always assumes someone is from the US. Something like 40% of the sites used are from the US. Meaning that its generally a "safe bet" to assume someone on reddit is an American man lol.
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most of the time when i post or comment on a thread, someone brings up something that references behavioral patterns of guys such as being driven by hormones, needing a girlfriend, etc
I think it depends on how you type as well as your previous posts/comments. I like to think how I type is gender neutral. At least I hope so.
No girls on the Internet.
r/girlsarentreal
Idk. You type like a girl, so I don’t know why.
Whatever bro.
Everyone on the internet is a man
I thought everyone on the internet was a dog?
63.6% of Redditors are men, and it used to be way more. Even now, it very much depends on the subs you are hanging out in. Sub subs skew very heavily toward one gender or another. But in the absence of any indicator from the user name/profile pic/profile text/etc, chances are any given person is likely to be male, unless you are in a sub more populated by women.
Without a profile pic or saying something inherently feminine the default assumption is male, though it depends on the subreddit. Also I would guess women are more likely to have a profile picture/avatar
Because the Majority of Users on this platform are male and women only make up around 30%. The largest amount of uses on reddit are 18 to 20 year old Male Americans. And the platform is dominated by them on English speaking subs.
This is the old school "rule of the internet" to keep people safe, you never trust anyone saying they are a woman.
https://www.deviantart.com/kdxf2007/art/Rules-of-The-internet-71207566
A) your avatar looks like the male version so yea it’s kinda lol you have to go off of If you do know someone
B) Reddit is global, lots of languages are gendered. So the default is “him/man” for a lot even tho it should, in English at least, be “them/their”. But it doesn’t translate well sometimes and also: ppl make mistakes.
I also default to “him” until I have more info, but that’s bc I’m German and it’s how my brain works sometimes, it’s not malicious and I’m also not a man lmao
Our objects are gendered for crying out loud 😂😭
Rip your inbox
lmaoo whatsup? so far theres nothing in my inbox
Becauee people are to stupid to look at profiles.
That's because Reddit has always just been an anonymous internet forum. Curating profiles is still somewhat new in an attempt to become more like other social media.
No.
Ive been on here for 13 years. Its not 'new'
But why would I want to look at profiles? The internet should be anonymous, I don't want to know who I'm talking to, just react to what they are saying in a post/comment. I don't even look at avatars or usernames tbh.
To me you're all generic western men aged 16-35 and I don't care to learn otherwise unless it's relevant to the topic, in which case you should mention it.
Why would the internet be anonymous?
So yiu'd rarher be ignorant ans just wrong and think people online arent real?
Are you bew to being online?
You can still be pretty anonymous, just lie about personal information.
Does it really matter?
It's not something I look for or care about really. I did grow up in the "BTW I'm a girl" days and that really didn't do anything positive either.
If you want a more reasonable answer, scams probably made it into something that you can equate to: "I'll believe it when I see it" whether it be catfishes, dudes dressing as girls in online games to make more friends or get more attention, or people who aren't actually cis. That last part isn't a scam, but it'll be rude to ask and people rather wouldn't have to ask.
I've got a really good goth girl avatar on some old website I haven't been on for a year. It wasn't made for the sake of scams, girls just have better clothes. I've made few friends on there solely because of the assumption that I was a woman and those don't last long when I tell em or they find out when adding me elsewhere.
I don't know if I ever want friends only based on the idea of me being a particular sex. Because they're likely not my friends and want something else.
You probably come off as having a logical mind.