I was not, when I started using this handle, aware of how non-present in popular vocabulary the word “alicorn” is. I thought it was a pretty girly username—maybe not up there with, I dunno, “PinkFlowerPrincess”, but perhaps on a par with “Cerise” (a shade of pink), or something subtler like “Purl” (a knitting stitch, also hinting at “Pearl”). It doesn’t and was never meant to declare my gender, but I always thought it suggested it. If nothing else, I think “Allison” is a more likely sound-alike than “Ali”-plus-unidentified-suffix, because that actually happened.
Does it bother you, specifically, that the default assignment is male?
It bothers me that there is a default assignment. If one were going to make a brand new default in a situation where none existed, it’s my impression that there would be a better (if still very weak) case for making it female instead, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to make such assumptions.
I was not, when I started using this handle, aware of how non-present in popular vocabulary the word “alicorn” is. I thought it was a pretty girly username—maybe not up there with, I dunno, “PinkFlowerPrincess”, but perhaps on a par with “Cerise” (a shade of pink), or something subtler like “Purl” (a knitting stitch, also hinting at “Pearl”). It doesn’t and was never meant to declare my gender, but I always thought it suggested it. If nothing else, I think “Allison” is a more likely sound-alike than “Ali”-plus-unidentified-suffix, because that actually happened.
It bothers me that there is a default assignment. If one were going to make a brand new default in a situation where none existed, it’s my impression that there would be a better (if still very weak) case for making it female instead, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to make such assumptions.