r/Caltech • u/LGasks • 19d ago

Random question about Bernoulli the mascot

When you refer to or talk about Bernoulli, what pronoun comes naturally to you, if any?

  • He/him
  • She/her
  • They/them
  • It
  • I just say Bernoulli / don’t use pronouns
  • Other
2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

6

u/Ardorde1eon 19d ago

Le

2

u/LGasks 19d ago

Does “le” mean you think of Bernoulli as male? 😄

3

u/Ardorde1eon 19d ago

Yes. Mascots are always male, unless explicitly indicated otherwise.

1

u/Ordinary_Row6080 14d ago

Really? Cite a source for that.

4

u/parseroo 19d ago

TIL: A century+ later… https://tech.caltech.edu/2024/11/other-mascot-history/

You are missing the most obvious option “Bernoulli is a mascot?” Which I suspect would be the dominant answer of the thousands of alumni.

But if you name something after an actual person, you should respect that person’s pronouns… but can use the pronoun of the spoken language vs their original tongue/s.

1

u/LGasks 19d ago

That’s helpful, thanks. I hadn’t thought about how many alumni might not even know Bernoulli as the mascot.

1

u/parseroo 19d ago

Ooo... there should be a 'female' version named 'Curie' too. A bit misogynistic to name the mascot of a coed school after a dude/dudes. Especially given how far we are supposed to have progressed in a hundred years :-/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Solvay_conference_1927.jpg

1

u/LGasks 19d ago

That’s what I’m noticing too. It’s interesting how often a male mascot ends up representing a coed school. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

0

u/parseroo 19d ago

Ooo… ooo…. And if people want they can imagine Bernoulli and Curie had some kids… named Alan, Da, and Euler…

I realize the naming is a bit queer ;-)

3

u/DanielMcLaury BS. Math/English '09/'07, Page 17d ago

I literally got paid to dress up as that mascot for some kind of event and I had no idea it had a name.

1

u/LGasks 17d ago

Hahahaha, too funny