The poll question I have for you is:
Do you respond differently if you know whether the person you're responding to is a guy or a girl?
For an extended discussion list the reasons why?
I guess the answer is yes. Other things given equal, I am more polite to a lady, in the middle of some heated disagreement, than I would be to a dude. It's like holding the door or offering your seat on a bus - just good manners.
Another thing: in my native languages ( I am a Pole who grew up in Russia), all nouns have gender. You don't say some things to a woman not because you are such a gentleman, but because it is linguistically impossible.
Like in Spanish:
carbon is a strong swearing word (or an exclusive buddy-word, not unlike our n----r), but
cabra is a nanny goat, and nothing else. Likewise, in Russian
kozyol (male goat) is offensive: Billy goats were used to lead herds of sheep to slaughterhouses. Natural "charismatic politicians" (
Judas goat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Considering how "interesting" the Russian history was in the last century......
A
koza (female goat), on the other hand, is just a cute domesticated mammal that makes the Greek Salad possible. The word is even used, sometimes, as a term of endearment, in an amorous-couple situation.
And then...
Perhaps the (natural, if you think about it) coalition of unrepentant misogynists and far-left feminists will find it hard to accept, but treating people of the other gender (race, ethnicity, religion, preference in soft dinks...)
better is not a problem.
How about we focus on the cases when people are treated
worse? It's not like we have to go to the end of the world, to encounter such anomalies.