Most of my gadgets historically have been girls, but I was just playing with my old Pentax MX and realised I always thought of it as a man. A proper bloke with engine oil and a huge set of spanners kinda dude. I think it's the P/K lens fitting - very satisfying the way it goes clunk-click, and of course he's dressed in black leather with a splash of chrome like a 1950s American hero.

The car I drive right now is fairly genderless because I feel no attachment to it. I guess it's a bit of a fat slag really, although if I ever find a garage that can fix the bloody wheel alinement she'll be upgraded to "fat slag that handles better than she used to and I'm kind of used to now she's a bit used, too". It's a Focus Estate and I swear it's been written off before, because it's just not right.

Most of my other cars have been girls, bitches or women. My last 406 was a women who is suing you for divorce. My Mondeo was the dependable older sister. My Nissan was the frisky young niece who adores you until she grows up and meets someone else and forgets all about you. My Fiat 126 was Lady Lazarus. My Fiesta van was that girl you really liked but didn't want to be seen in because you're shallow and she's not cool.

My Android phone is definitely a teenage lad. I feel no attachment to him, and most of the time he's off doing god knows what. If you're lucky, when you ask "Where are you going?" he says "OUT!"

My old Nokia was definitely a girl. All of them were. I loved them dearly. Nicely presented, well behaved girls you'd be proud to introduce to your parents. They were all called "Dawn".

My mp3 player is a Chinese floozy. She looks nice, but came with a virus and goes down at the drop of a. But she was very cheap and kinda fun while it lasted.

I'll think of more - but now over to you. Describe your relationships with objects past and present?

My car's a girl. Isabelle. I think she's fabulous to look at, makes me smile every time I take her out, makes me spend my money keeping her happy and I don't really mind it. I also like the noises she makes when you press her on a bit. </swisstony>

I haven't attached a gender to any of my other things... they're all kind of androgynous. Not to say they don't have a personality.

Surprisingly enough, I've never assigned a gender to any of my gadgets. Perhaps I just have no imagination

Or possibly it's because I feel that I know enough about most of my technology to break down the "what the hell is going on in there?" feeling that people often bring to me. Especially girls.

I've never considered any gadget in that sense, but I'm always surprised at just how brilliantly multi-purpose some things are; my PS3 (despite Sony's recent efforts), that free mini tool kit I own three of , my Kindle, MP3 player...

I have lots of imagination but I've never ascribed names to gadgets. Not even cars. They are things. Useful things, shiny things, but things nevertheless. I don't even give computers names, other than obviously descriptive ones so I know which one is which.

Jon

My computer's name is Bernard.

I was really struggling to name our PDC. The office manager suggested "Dave" which I thought was good. In the end though, I called it "PDC".

There are some computers I really am not that attached to

My old desktop is called Baldric

My laptop is Hero and my iMac is Beatrice, the servers, when I had them, were Benedick and Claudio.

That said, they were just the names I assigned, I never really thought of them as male or female.

Due to my parents, cars and boats have always been "she", but I've never given them names.

I've never assigned gender to things.

I don't give them names either, although I know people who do.

It always seemed a little immature to me.

+1. I've never really called my stuff anything.

I once jokingly said "Yes, darling" to my satnav but this was for the benefit of the passengers.

My sister calls her laptop Clive, and her car Portia.

Your wife is still smarting about that.

Nah, same here, the closest they get to being named is 'the computer upstairs' or 'the computer downstairs'.

I've assigned names for the wifi connection - Adam's Laptop, My Phone, Alyson's Phone etc.. but that's it.

Cars, yes. Mine’s a girl and she’s called Marlene (German girl in American clothing). But gadgets, computers? No. Though I wish the British Siri on my iPhone was female rather than male.

change the voice to American.

That makes it female.


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