Re: Re: gender & gentleness

[Melly]

... and don't forget that you have to look at the phrasing of the original post - e.g. "I'm probably being stupid, but what's the difference between $foo and @foo?" is probably going to get a more sympathetic response than "$foo and @foo are the same thing, so why is my script not working? Stupid Perl..."

Maybe women are just politer than men?

[allolex]

That's a valid point. Women are in fact generally more polite than men. Sociolinguists see a direct relationship between politeness and indirectness. Men are often frustrated by women's indirectness, like when a woman says "My, it is chilly in here" to say "Please close the window", but men still appreciate it when they understand it. ;)