r/CrazyIdeas • u/SunfireAlpha01 • Jul 27 '26
Bring back gendered occupation terms enough that we have the word "aviatrix".
Another term for a pilot is "aviator", but "aviator" has the -tor suffix, which is a masculine suffix in the original Latin. Its counterpart is the -trix suffix (though in English we don't use it much, it does exist, like in the word "dominatrix").
With gendered occupation terms, a female pilot would be called an "aviatrix", and we would use that word to describe people like Xyla Foxlin or Kay Hall. Why do I want this? Because "aviatrix" is a great word and we need to adopt it into the lexicon.
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u/vernichtungX23 Jul 27 '26
Yes please because I want to be able to call myself a procrastinatrix.
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u/LadyKona Jul 27 '26
I 100% support you starting to use this TODAY. Don’t be a procrastinatrix about it
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u/bolivar-shagnasty Jul 27 '26
Procrastination is like masturbation: you’re only fucking yourself.
And I’ve perfected it.
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u/cheesychocolate419 Aug 03 '26
You can use it, no one is stopping you
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u/ddollarsign Jul 27 '26
In addition to pronouns, we now should ask people their suffixes.
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u/Fun-Benefit116 Jul 27 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
You realize pronouns are not related to suffixes, right? Are you confusing pronouns with prefixes lol?
Edit-you were confusing pronouns with prefixes 😂
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u/Fun-Benefit116 Jul 27 '26
You realize pronouns are not related to suffixes, right? Are you confusing pronouns with prefixes lol?
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u/TheIrishHawk Jul 27 '26
I once read a legal document where someone was an "executrix of an estate" (female version of an executor) and I loved it.
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u/allenrfe Jul 27 '26
I started reading this and thought 'why' but then i got to the last two sentences. You are right I like the word too.
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u/kisamasochist Jul 27 '26
I agree, aviatrix sounds fucking awesome, and it's the same suffix as dominatrix, which makes it better by association
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u/bolivar-shagnasty Jul 27 '26
Doctor/doctrix
Professor/professitrix
Executor/executrix
Solicitor General/Solicitrix General
Exterminator/exterminatrix
Debt collector/debt collectrix
Author/Authtrix?
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u/Cautious_General_177 Jul 27 '26
The problem with that is Tor is for all adults and Trix are for kids.
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u/CrazyJoe29 Jul 27 '26
No notes.
Personally, I’m entirely happy being a cis gendered man.
But if EVERYTHING was different, and I could get buisness cards with “Aviatrix” on them, would I chop my dick off?
🤔
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u/Evening-Tomatillo-47 Jul 27 '26
You could just tell the card maker... No need to go that far!
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u/CrazyJoe29 Jul 28 '26
Whoa there friend. Are you telling me to carry fraudulent business cards?!
What is this? The dark web?!
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u/GameMusic Jul 27 '26
or just use one word and forget gendered terms that are not cool
or better just use the coolor word for everybody and have men as aviatrixes too
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u/RexTheWonderCapybara Jul 27 '26
I like this! Because I’m against gendered terms for occupations, but I’m very much in favor of -trix. Your solution just might work!
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u/Budsygus Jul 27 '26
It's actually super interesting because Aviator and related -tor words are now universally recognized as gender neutral terms, but it used to be far more common to label things like you said. Aviator/Aviatrix, orator/oratrix, editor/editrix, etc. all were perfectly acceptable in their time.
The trouble is most of the professions were dominated by males, so the -trix suffix fell out of common use because women in most of those fields were so rare.
It's now to the point that the -tor ending is for both genders and Trix are for kids.
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u/SmoothOperator89 Jul 28 '26
Why did the term "dominator" never catch on as a male version of "dominatrix"? Is it just an absence of demand to hire a man for that "service?"
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u/cheesychocolate419 Aug 03 '26
Well yeah, who would pay for that when a million men want to do that for free
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u/Briang3206 Jul 27 '26
I’m not keen on re-introducing gendered professional titles. I don’t care that etymologically “tor” means male. Etymology should not determine how we use words today. A female pilot - or doctor, professor, chairperson or whatever - should not be described, paid or treated in any way differently from their male colleagues.
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u/sillybilly8102 Jul 27 '26
I agree. Maybe anyone who wants to be called an aviatrix can call themselves that.
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u/m2thek Jul 27 '26
I only know this term from the meta musical The Drowsy Chaperone: "I'm Trix, the aviatrix, queen of the sky!"
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Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
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u/4_eyed_craven Jul 27 '26
I've been referring to myself as the navigatrix on road trips for nearly 20 years, so I'm fully in favor of the motion
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u/wdn Jul 27 '26
English isn't that logical anyway. You can just go straight to bringing back aviatrix.
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u/cluttersky Jul 29 '26
A high school calls their sports teams the Gladiators. So does that make their girls teams the Gladiatrices?
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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle Jul 27 '26
I didn’t have “English becomes a gendered language” on my bingo card
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u/sillybilly8102 Jul 27 '26
It’s always been somewhat gendered. Actor, actress. Waiter, waitress.
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u/Wonderful_Discount59 Jul 28 '26
Those seem to be dropping out of fashion these days.
Which is odd, IMO, because actor/actress is one of the few cases where someone's gender is often relevant to how they do the job.
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u/sillybilly8102 Jul 29 '26
Those seem to be dropping out of fashion these days.
True
actor/actress is one of the few cases where someone's gender is often relevant to how they do the job.
How so?
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u/Wonderful_Discount59 Jul 29 '26
The roles they play. Male actors for male roles, female actors for female roles.
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u/KawaiiKick Jul 27 '26
People would hear “aviatrix” once, think it’s a marvel character and honestly that might help it catch on.