Of the two readings, I found "You are What you speak" most interesting. The reading was very correct in saying that hiding gender in certain languages, such as Spanish, is difficult. Whenever my parents ask me what I did on a particular day, and I just want to say "I went with my friend to..." I would either say "fui con mi amigo a" or "fui con mi amiga a." The gender of the friend will ALWAYS be revealed if I'm hanging out with just one person. However, if I'm hanging out in a big group I would say "amigos" and in the plural you would have to ask if any girls were there because girls are included in the plural masculine. So there is some ambiguity, but compared to English, Spanish often reveals everything. The masculine/feminine articles "el" and "la" definitely contribute to how I feel about a certain object. Some words such as "superior" which means "superior" or "the best" can take either a masculine or feminine article. Making it "el superior" makes it sound really feminine. I know a supermarket that goes by "La Superior" and it gives the store a more cozy atmosphere. This is not to say that women are the only ones who shop at supermarkets, but it does give the impression that the female customer was particularly important in the naming of the store. It also gives female empowerment vibes because it was a choice to use "la" instead of "el." Regarding the other reading, it was kind of confusing how the author spoke about bringing the reader to the author or vice versa. I did agree with the part about having certain inclinations to translate in a certain way because there are just too many options.
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