Why is the earth and various objects such as flowers, trees, cars, etc. considered a mother/she?

Question

Just curious because he is usually the generic term so why do they use she for things like this?

Answer 1

I'm not exactly sure why things like cars and ships are considered a she, that seems silly to me, but I would say things like the earth and such are considered a she because they can give life.

ETA:

As a non-believer I don't really know what to tell you about that except that the bible says God is a man therefore society sees God as a man. God also doesn't give life the way a mother, a flower or a tree does. God makes life from nothing. Women, flowers and trees take two things to make a completely new life.

Debating whether or not God is real or God is a man is an entirely different ball game that would require a thorough break down of biblical texts.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Answer 2

My guitar is a she. I have no idea why. It's interesting.

Countries are motherlands (except Germany.. who is surprised?)

Continents are feminine, the seas are feminine. It's odd, really. I wonder if objects are feminized because men desire to conquer them (or did, forever ago.)

The guitar thing... most guitarists are male and I guess it'd be a little g*y to finger and pluck something you've named Derrick or George.

Mine is named Grace.  

Answer 3

It is because of the nature of the items, taking tree's for example:

One minute its happy standing there shouting "I'm a tree, I'm a tree" then for no good reason it starts flinging acorns on your head cos your forgot it's birthday or other unlikely reasons like it's autumn or something.

Another example:

Earth, see one minute it is sat there shouting look at me," i'm the earth, i'm th earth" and "chill out venus, what you all heated up about" you know generally having a laugh at the expense of mercury and the rest of the solar system.

Next minute it's erupting all over the place for reasons that will take all the men scientists in the world (and some women) tens of thousands of years to figure out.

So there you have it, the definitive guide to gender naming of objects and creatures......I thank you...

Answer 4

Many of our words take a humanized feminine quality based on ancient myths associations with gods and goddesses, such as the Roman goddesses, Flora and Fauna.  Trees are not feminized in all cultures.  In some cultures, based on their oldest myths and assigned gods and goddesses, like a god for water or a god for trees, water and trees are masculine.  As for ships and cars and such, they are named as female because they are "containers", vessels that "carry" something from here-to-there, like a pregnant woman.  Most cultures assign feminine qualities to the concept of "vessel" in association with the human female womb or uterus.  The uterus is a "sac" or a "bladder" or "cavity".  The word "vessel" hails from the Latin for bladder, "vesica".

Answer 5

I know nobody who talks like this.

The flower is female?  As in  "I picked her"?  That doesn't even make sense.

Boats were referred to as "she" as in "she sails tomorrow.  But cars?  Highly unlikely.

@George: did English really used to have that many gendered nouns?  Perhaps hundreds of years ago.  In comparison with other languages (example: German), modern English is very straightforward when it comes to this stuff.

Answer 6

A mixture of life-giving terms (mother earth) and also a hang over from gendered nouns.

edit - God is traditionally thought to be male and is imported from another culture anyway. I accept the point about him as 'creator' (though I'm an atheist), but aside from that all other nouns (mostly referring to vast indefinite nouns) with supposed power over life/death are female nouns.

English did once have many gendered nouns. The actual nouns have disappeared, but the referencing as pronoun has survived the demise of definite articles.

Answer 7

In ancient times, humans were vulnerable to every day events such as storms and floods in even worse ways than we are today.

Without medical knowledge or the ability to save themselves from hunger or cold, how amazing the wonder of birth must have seemed to them.

Imagine ~ one day, a woman started to swell up and some time later a child came out of her! Still today many see birth in these essential terms.

It would be easy therefore to consider the earth, from which came forth food, water, shelter and all the necessities of life as a mother to the humans who wandered over her, don't you think?

I'm not saying this IS how it happened, but to me it seems it very well COULD have happened that way.

We do know the first 'gods' were in fact "goddesses" and their guardianship of the earth and its creatures was much longer than the very recent period of 'history' during which gods have been worshipped.

Cheers :-)

Answer 8

For the sake of modernity, I'll just state that many things on earth is called a she for several reasons. (As many people who say things, do not think about the history of these things.) :P

For instance, flowers or trees or cars often, to humans express beauty.

Earth or flowers or trees can often be referred to a woman giving birth.

Street Cars, speed boats, or anything that shows some sort of unrestricted power can be referred to a woman on her period or a woman with PMS.

Of course there's more but I can't think of anymore so I'll just end this with "etc..etc"

Answer 9

Because the earth gives birth to life, and all things alive and beautiful we associate with the female as female's give birth.

As for God, yes 'God' gives life, but the human race in general associates god not so much with the giver of life but as an 'almighty great', an 'all powerful force' and the 'leader' of our lives - This is why men made god male.

Just because god is refered to as male doesn't mean people actually think of god as male - I have seen questions posted on this site that overwhelmingly indicate otherwise.

:-)