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When I was at school, and I was learning French, I never understood why the French language described inanimate objects as either masculine or feminine, similarly, in German. In the English language we just have things. It is a table. It is not feminine or masculine, transgender not even just going through a phase. It is simply a table nothing more. As I grew up and became more interested in my own language the thought of non gender specific objects disappointed me. I think for all the richness and complexity of the English language, for the times we were conquered and our language evolved; that we don’t feminise or masculinise objects is to our linguistic detriment. Of course the problem is that it is not the thing that is masculine or feminine, it is the prefix to the word itself in the construct of the language that denotes gender. So, in English a camera can never be referred to as male of female because the prefix “the” or “a” is with out gender and renders the object itself sexless. Or does it? My case and point to you is the Balda Baldessa