[yoz-y]

> technical Q&A forum like StackExchange.

I believe most of these issues have risen after SE has opened doors to topics beyond tech. As soon as you stop talking about things but about people, you will encounter people problems.

> We don't continually mention each other's race, hair color, handedness, or preferred sleeping position on every tenth word,

In many written languages, and English in particular, you have gendered pronouns which you more or less have to use. Sentences that avoid referring to people with pronouns are awkward and forced.

> yet we often know someone's gender even before we know their name. Why is it so?

In real world relations you often see a person first and "assume their gender" based on how they look, before knowing their name. In some cultures the greeting is different depending on the gender of the other person.

[xxs]

Actually the name alone might not help as names can be gender neutral or families not having gender specific endings (like Slavic languages).

Indeed, there are languages (Baltic ones) here even 'Hello' has multiple versions depending on the target person.

[fortran77]

It's not just cultures, it's languages!

In my native Hebrew, I'd greet a man like "מה שלומך" "Ma Shlomcha" ("How Are You" literally, "How is your peace?") and a woman gets the female noun form/pronounciation "Ma Shlomech").

Nouns and Verbs have gender in Hebrew

[zeckalpha]

> Sentences that avoid referring to people with pronouns are awkward and forced.

Your post avoided pronouns. Was it awkward and forced?

[yoz-y]

This is how I write so no. But I did not actively choose to avoid using pronouns, only gendered ones. In this case it was easy because there was not much need for them anyways.

[steve_g]

"I" and "you" are pronouns in the post.

Rewrite the post without them; it will be awkward.