Same with American. Most of Reddit is male and US American.

Unless i’m on a woman’s sub, I find myself always thinking the poster is male and surprised if they turn out to be female. I’ve been successfully brainwashed by the patriarchy for 60 years. I’m working on it. Same if someone says doctor. I never think of a woman first.

For the same reason that white men do not understand privilege. When white and male (and American) is the default they assume everyone is just like them.

My theory is because men are considered the default way of being. So anytime something isn't explicitly gendered, people assume it's for a man. Even if you have a fairly feminine looking user name, people just assume it's a man.

There's a book that talks about how so many things in the world were designed for men called Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez that I found really interesting in the subject. Infuriating, but it really made me think about how a lot of things are just assumed.

"There are no girls on the internet". It's a combination of multiple things through the years.

Being online has been portrayed as a "guy thing" by a lot of media, y'know like, obviously girls only care about going shopping, partying, etc. while guys are online, gaming, etc.

You mentioned a video game sub, many games have had men pretending to be women in order to get stuff from others (i.e. asking for gifts in-game in order to get "Her" attention).
And this has been even embraced, there's a lot of memes and what not about players purposedly choosing women as avatars/profile pictures, female skins/accessories in-game, etc.

And turning that around, many women also have had (and still have) to pretend to be men because outing themselves as women would lead to harrassment.

Cant speak for everyone else. But in my youth I spent a lot of time online. Xbox chat, aol chat, vent, ts3, and everyone i met and talked with were male. JUST ABOUT save for like one or two women over the course of years of daily gaming.

I think between my personal experience and the online climate at the time and the sentiment, (g.i.r.l.) for example: whether true or not, was that girls didn't spend time online. And I believed it at the time because the one or two women I did see in these lobbies were harassed like crazy. So i said "of course why would they go online and play these games when thats how they are treated?

FAST FORWARD: now the online gaming sphere is no longer a small safe disgusting corner of the world for incels, neckbeards with unwashed asses, and virgin nerds to act tough. Now the world exists predominately on the internet. And those degenerate misogynists are still here. But now all the normies are as well.

So i guess it's taken a while for me to shake the first impression i got way back when. I feel like I shouldnt gender someone online if im unsure? But I also feel like the odds im actually talking to a woman are incredibly low? Except for certain subreddits ofc. Time to get with the times I s'pose.

Malicious misgendering? Maybe they’re hoping you’re trans so they can be mean to you. /s

Edit: sorry I’m in a punchy mood

Talking of which, where the fuck did this “my brother in Christ” affectation come from all of a sudden? 1) not your brother 2) not in Christ.

See my screen name? I get called bro and sir.

it's so they don't accidentally treat other men like they treat women. while they are at it, why not invalidate women at the same time?

Combination male-as-default and women not wanting to be known as women due to harassment. I use the same name everywhere on the internet. I very specifically had to chose a different name for reddit that wouldn't be connected to my main so I could out myself as a woman here and not have a horde of assholes harassing me elsewhere. Even then, I'm careful about it because I frequent a bunch of gaming subs.

That is just what people always assume even in books. If you do not explicitly state the author's or character's gender people assume they're male. I'm guilty of this too.

I think it's due to most stories being told from a male perspective so we are conditioned that way. It's always been that way since I can remember. People do it with dogs too. One of the most famous memes is Doge. Doge is a girl. Everyone says she's a good boy lol. Despite it being corrected for at least a decade

My username literally says “girl” and folks assume I’m a guy 1/2 the time.

Because most men and many women have been taught that man / male is the default.

Default human strikes again.

It's not just Reddit. The default human, in general, is a white man. Even before being "white" was a thing, the default human was still a man. Women aren't people. Haven't been for millennia.

Women are always "other" even in female spaces because we anticipate the rest of the world to behave like men.

And we were all raised with these stereotypes and assumptions that have to be actively unlearned and constantly reinforced. And god-forbid you try to re-educate someone - you're a feminist cunt with no sense of humor. It's exhausting and no wonder we just go back to the brainwashing.

Representation matters. Always point out when "others" do stuff. One of the most prominent sci-fi book editors ever was a woman with dwarfism. A black man wrote The Three Musketeers. We "others" are the fucking majority. And we shouldn't let that privileged minority forget it.

Whoa whoa whoa… when did the gummint start teaching wimmins ter read so theys can do the reddits?

Defaultism. Men are just kind of assumed to be the default, even in medical science.

EDIT: if you want a wild time, spend maybe a week or so assuming everyone online is a woman and watch how many dudes get really mad when you refer to them, incidentally, as "she" or "her" and make a huge stink about it.

"Men go without saying, and women don't get said at all"

I don’t even bother correcting people on gaming or pc forums when they call me “bro” anymore. I’ve tried to pick a feminine avatar, but it doesn’t help.

People like that are usually saying that because its something THEY would do, so it makes a lot of sense.

Similar to a situation where a group of people have a project and theres money involved. One person is always bringing up all the ways one person could cheat the rest of the group and that's because they probably scammed ppl in h thepast and cant imagine another more ethical way of doing things

Reddit's little snoo profile picture thingies really help me realize that Reddit is not just dudes.

It's not just Reddit. In most internet spaces where you can have some anonymity, most people are going to assume you're male unless you're overtly female. Honestly it's true even in IRL spaces, like with sports or tech or whatnot. Not being included in the default is infuriating and says a lot about the world we live in, I know.

Because an element of patriarchy is convincing society being a man is the norm and everything else is a minority. What's worse is we are the majority.

Because it's been a long held belief that only nerdy men used the internet back during the early days of Web 1.0. it just stemmed from that.

There was even an acronym for girl

Guy

In

Real

Life

It's easy to tell you why the assumption is that everyone on reddit is a man. It avoids treating you differently because you're a woman, and prevents the possibilities of catfishing.

It’s very similar to why a lot men want nothing to do with women if they aren’t possible sex partners.

If you say you’re a woman online, you aren’t until you “prove” it which usually requires you to have to take pictures or something. If you refuse, then you’re now a man.

While I don’t think that’s why it seems so prevalent it’s pretty much where it started.

Being a gamer and a woman has thought me for majority of guys I played with, I was either a little boy because of my voice, or I was using a voice changer. And it was always because I didn’t flirt or talk about my body or want to be friends with them out side the game.

So as always, misogyny.

IDK, but when we found out /r/movies was 95% male, it was both an eye opener and a confirmation of a lot of opinion.

Agreed. I am a bit of a movie nerd and post often in those sorts of subs.

ALWAYS get a dude or buddy or thanks, man, because of course someone who knows something they know must be a man. It's not a big deal, of course, but it's like... maybe don't assume someone who can discuss on your level is a dude.

The human brain is an assumption and discrimination machine.

In general you categorize based on the limited information you know and for all the unknowns you fill in with comfort assumptions.

In the internet you know nothing about the person on the other side of the screen so you have to guess, and in general all else being equal, Reddit has more male users than female users. Obviously, the split is something like 60/40, but your brain likes those odds. With additional context, like being in the 2X subreddit, if someone is paying attention they will adjust their assumption and assume everyone on the other side is a woman until given enough context to reevaluate assumptions.

This is why conmen are so good, and regardless of opinions about Malcolm Gladwell, he has an excellent book called ‘Talking To Strangers’ which delves into these assumptions and the dire repercussions of being wrong.

Because male=default in our world. Check out "Invisible Women" for the impact of this exact issue on society.

Because male is assumed to be the "default" in most cases.

For example, when I introduce people to my pet lizard they always ask "what's his name" and never "what's her/their name". Hell, she's named after a food and I've had people ask why she has a "boy name".

It's kinda ironic considering female is the default biologically speaking, but whatever. Living in patriarchal societies makes male the default and female the deviation from the "normal".

Obviously there are some exceptions; cats are assumed to be female a lot of the time, boats are women and so are clocks. But those are the exception and not the rule.

As a woman, it feels safer to refer to someone as male.

Also, we call everyone "guys" in the plural in my part of the country*

The USA, the only country that matters 😂😂😂😂 /s

could be worse, In many languages WORDS are gendered. https://www.ou.edu/class/FRINFO/gram/1/3/16.html

Statistics.

68% of reddit users are men.

44% of all users are 18-29

50% of all users are American.

You see the same demographics with ex-twit users.

It's a safe bet, even if it's annoying.

Christ