Edit: As @bdonvr@thelemmy.club points out below

  1. This is just a mascot and is not a new logo
  2. The blog referencing Mozilla’s statement on the mascots gender says, (he/she/they/them/it), use whatever pronoun you prefer.
  • Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip
    111·
    1 hour ago

    What if… hear me out… what if we remove the focus on gender altogether? What if we stop engendering things that don’t have genders? Like logos… and behavioral attributes…

    • SaraTonin@lemmy.world
      1·
      5 minutes ago

      Since Mozilla actually didn’t and the post is based on a lie, I’ll say congratulations, your reaction is almost certainly what they were hoping for

  • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
    30·
    2 hours ago

    By the way this is NOT a new Firefox logo. It’s just the fox mascot drawing that may be used in other parts of the UI like the welcome screen after a new install, or on social media.

    The actual logo remains unchanged.

    On top of that nowhere in the announcement are the supposed pronouns mentioned: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/meet-kit/

    Actually the whole thing may be bullshit. Literally the only Mozilla reference I can find to Kit’s pronouns is a statement given to like one or two blogs, and it says that any pronoun is acceptable.

    Kit (he/she/they/them/it) is the user’s constant companion. Wherever they choose to roam, Kit will accompany and guide them with clever, playful encouragement and support — giving the user the confidence to run free.

    That’s attributed to Mozilla here: https://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-has-killed-its-old-mascot-heres-what-the-new-cute-one-looks-like/

    All other references seem to be chuds on X claiming that it’s explicitly they/them and acting like Mozilla is making a big deal about that. As if it matters either way.

    If you had some kind of reaction to this post you’ve fallen for culture war bullshit propaganda, congratulations.

  • Owl@mander.xyz
    5·
    1 hour ago

    Because it was what before? Why do we care about the gender identity of the fox mascot of a web browser?

    Don’t answer, please

  • realitaetsverlust@piefed.zipEnglish
    1082·
    4 hours ago

    The gender orientation of the firefox logo is something I haven’t thought about ever.

    What’s the point of this?

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
      121·
      2 hours ago

      The point is that you’ve fallen for some idiots on X making up culture war bullshit.

      Kit’s supposed pronouns aren’t mentioned by Mozilla anywhere in any Mozilla announcements.

      One news site attributes this quote to Mozilla

      Kit (he/she/they/them/it) is the user’s constant companion. Wherever they choose to roam, Kit will accompany and guide them with clever, playful encouragement and support — giving the user the confidence to run free.

      That’s the one and only place that even remotely mentions it as far as I can tell. And it’s not even a statement that it’s NB or they/them… More like it’s a fictional mascot call it what you want.

      • AmbitiousProcess (they/them)@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        Mozilla uses “they’re” to refer to Kit, but other than that there’s no explicit statement at all.

        Kit is a companion, not a commentator. They’re not here to deliver punchlines. Kit shows up as a small signal that Firefox is working for you, then steps back so you can keep moving.

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      3 hours ago

      Well, if I was creating a mascot, and I didn’t want to think about their gender orientation… they/them pronouns are what I would use. Mozilla actually didn’t announce the mascot’s gender. People just saw they/them pronouns and made the inference from there.

    • wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      195·
      4 hours ago

      True, it was just “a fox” for me so far. I didn’t really care about the gender of a drawing. I guess it is a good awareness move though

      • errer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        382·
        4 hours ago

        Feels like a publicity stunt more than a genuine attempt to include non-binary people.

      • realitaetsverlust@piefed.zipEnglish
        112·
        4 hours ago

        To me, this feels more like a PR move than an awareness move. Kind of like: “We don’t wanna do anything substantial so uuuuh let’s just make our logo non-binary”.

        • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          3 hours ago

          It’s a terrible PR move if you don’t say anything about it. They didn’t say “Hey, look! Our mascot is non-binary!” All they did was use they/them pronouns.

    • Lumidaub@feddit.orgEnglish
      1312·
      2 hours ago

      Most people default to “this entity is male” without more context. I do it too, it’s a bit of an issue I try to be aware of but regularly fail. Male is default, female is marked; that’s why the stereotypical “girl” character in video games is just the “boy” character but with eye lashes and lips and maybe high heels. (And non-binary doesn’t exist, obv /s)

      So I can see this as making the non-genderedness explicit.

      Edit: I don’t have the spoons to elaborate on “male is default”. Can someone else maybe jump in? Thx.

      • realitaetsverlust@piefed.zipEnglish
        101·
        3 hours ago

        Most people default to “this entity is male” without more context.

        I have a hard time wrapping my head about this sentence. I don’t think about the gender of any entity without more context because it’s usually completely irrelevant.

        Male is default, female is marked

        So, I didn’t grow up in an english speaking country, but if I hear “the baker” I don’t automatically assume it’s a man. I think it’s a person that bakes bread and pastry. The same with “the mechanic”, “the engineer”, etc. It’s all - by default - a person.

        Now, if we were to talk german, there is actually a difference. As “the baker”, for example, we have “Bäcker” as Male and “Bäckerin” as female. The reason why male is “the default” in german is because it’s shorter. That’s it. If you say “Der Bäcker”, it’s as you’d say “the baker” in english, you don’t automatically make an assumption about the gender. If you say “Die Bäckerin”, you are referring to a female baker specifically.

        So I can see this as making the non-genderedness explicit.

        Honestly this feels more like a mockery of people that identify as non-binary than raising any kind of awareness. Kinda has some “apache combat helicopter” vibes.

        • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          1 hour ago

          They’re not talking about language with the male-as-default, but rather for example this:

          The depiction with less discerning features is what we assume to be male. If you want to express female, you have to add a dress or long hair or curves etc…
          There’s actual scientific research on this bias existing, although I don’t know in what way this extends to animal depictions.

      • DisgruntledGorillaGang@reddthat.com
        111·
        4 hours ago

        Its a fucking cartoon logo, I’ve never once thought about its gender identity or called it any gender for that matter. I click on it, and that’s the extent of my interaction or consideration.

        • Lumidaub@feddit.org
          51·
          4 hours ago

          Have you ever seen 1s and 0s out in the real world, outside your smarty-pants books? Thought so. Maths don’t real, checkmate atheist.

      • Nima@leminal.spaceEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        to be honest, 99% of people don’t even think about gender at all without being prompted to. especially when it comes to mascots like the firefox logo. its a browser.

        this seems like a PR move by mozilla and nothing more.

      • FellowHuman@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 hours ago

        That highly depends on the language.

        Example in Czech: Generic Fox (Liška) is a girl Generic Wolf (Vlk) is a boy

        Because our words themself have genders. Fox: Liška (girl) Lišák (boy) but default if you don’t knoe the sex of the animal is in this case the girl version.

        This differs per language. And in german (if I’m not mistaken) fox is Der Fuchs, so boy.

        I’m using boy/girl instead of male/female, because … I don’t know, that is how I think about it.