mascfirst

Mascfirst is a term that appears in discussions of gender, language, and design to describe a default-priority approach in which masculine forms or representations are assumed in the absence of explicit specification. It is used to describe tendencies in analysis, templates, and user interfaces where the masculine is treated as the baseline.

In linguistics, mascfirst may be used to describe corpora or grammatical analyses that treat masculine as the baseline, especially in languages with grammatical gender. In software and media design, mascfirst has been used to describe templates, avatars, or pronoun systems that default to masculine forms unless a user specifies otherwise.

Criticism and debate: Advocates argue it reflects historical usage and can simplify design; critics contend it reinforces gender bias and marginalizes non-masculine identities. Proponents of inclusive design prefer gender-neutral defaults or explicit user choice, such as flexible pronoun systems and neutral imagery.

Variations and related concepts: Related ideas include default bias, gender-neutral language, and inclusive design. Mascfirst is sometimes contrasted with femfirst or neutfirst, though these terms are less standardized. In academic writing, discussions around mascfirst intersect with broader debates on linguistic sexism and algorithmic bias.

See also: gender bias, inclusive language, default bias, pronouns, gender-neutral language.