Is “Knight” Gender-Neutral?

Hello, you have a way with the words.

Hi, Grant. This is Nina from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We are naming a mascot for a local college, and I’m on a committee for this.

And we start looking at the names that students have sent in.

But the one that came up that was a little controversial because we couldn’t decide if it could be used or not was the name Steel Knights.

Of course, Pittsburgh Steel Knights would be popular.

S-P-E-E-L Knights.

And so my immediate reaction was, yeah, but we have sports teams, and they’re male and female.

And isn’t that a gendered term?

And there were actual people there who said they didn’t feel it was or that it wasn’t really relevant in any way.

And I was sort of surprised.

Somebody actually said, could there be female night?

Oh, yeah.

But I just wondered what I asked you.

Nina, when you’re saying the word knight, you’re saying it spelled with a K, right?

Yes.

So suits of armor and the round table and swords and horses.

Yeah.

All right.

And maybe the first mistake was naming a committee to come up with this.

Hey, you know what?

That’s a good, that’s a very good call on your part.

So the steel knights on first blush isn’t bad, but your question is, there was some debate over what part of it?

The word knights, and is that a gendered word?

Can you name a mascot with a gender if you have females on some of your teams?

Right.

And what’s your thought about the word knight specifically, Nina?

I think that knights are male.

Other people said, oh no, knights could be women.

And I’m like, yeah, but, you know, Judi Dench is not Sir Judi Dench.

She’s named Judi Dench.

So I’m confused.

I really don’t even know how to make the call.

I think it’s a gendered, but.

Were there any women who argued that it wasn’t gendered?

No, just me.

Okay.

It was a mostly male group.

Okay.

And deans and stuff.

Okay.

So do you think it’s a gendered word, number one?

And number two, is it okay to have a gendered word as a mascot?

K-N-I-G-H-T, knight.

I would say it is.

I would say it’s still one of those words where you would say female knight if you were going to say anything to qualify it.

Yeah.

Like the lady knights.

Yeah.

Lady knights.

Yeah, I’m wondering, too, if this was a suggestion by students.

I wonder if they’re being exposed to more female knights on programs like Game of Thrones.

Brienne of Tarth, right?

That is exactly what someone talked about.

I am in your camp, Nina.

I think it’s got such a long history. And, you know, if it doesn’t matter, if it’s not gendered, then why not use the word dame? Why not be the fighting dames? Perfect, right? And they’ll never agree to that.

Yeah. Or here’s another thought that sort of speaks to your second question. Could you or should you have a gendered mascot? And my other suggestion would be call them the knights, but have every single image be a female in armor. I can imagine like Athena, right? That’d be amazing. I like that. I like that idea. I love that too.

And the truth of the matter is that was one of the front runners, but there’s a whole bunch of other ones in there. So I don’t know if that one’s going to happen, but if it does, that is a great idea.

Well, something you said a moment ago, it kind of gave me like kind of a shiver of revulsion. And you said something about the lady knights, and I think that’s what you’re trying to avoid. Even if we agreed that knights wasn’t gendered and it could equally apply to women and men, you just know that there’s going to be a newscaster or sports writer or somebody in the administration who’s going to take up the habit of calling them the lady knights. Because that tends to be the default.

I grew up in the small towns in Missouri where I grew up. It was always, even though it was the Trojans, then you had the lady Trojans. By default, they were male. Or you had the lady Tigers. By default, the tiger was male. I’m like, you just know. So you’re trying to avoid that, too, right?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so I think we’re with you. You have to let us know what the committee decides, okay?

I am definitely going to let you know what happens. But it’s been a really interesting experience naming a mascot, let me tell you.

I bet. Never done it before. I vote for the camels. But let us know how that goes.

Yeah. Okay, sure. Thanks, Nina. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

But I would be very curious to know if younger listeners think that we’re making a mistake, that we’re looking too closely at the history.

Yeah, that’s a good question. Right. Do they think, if you saw Knight, would you just say, I want to know if that’s a man or a woman, or would you just assume it was masculine?

Yeah, yeah. What about folks who play lots of video games? That’s true, yeah. Female knights. Well, let us know. Call us, 877-929-9673, or send your thoughts in email to words@waywordradio.org.