@Malleus_Incus_Stapes (Malleus, Incus, Stapes!) posted a new topic, subject "Which Dopers do you always get their gender wrong?". It read:

   I know **Covered_In_Bees** is (to borrow a phrase from Dave Barry) a male guy of the extreme opposite sex. Honest. But for some reason, my brain insists on thinking of him as a girl. Why? Brains don't need a reason.
    
    Likewise, **Qadgop the Mercotan**. Maybe it's because I think of Q as a feminine letter? Whatever the case, though I know he's a he, I get disoriented whenever our resident prison doc mentions his wife.
    
    And then there's me. On message boards that don't show gender, I'm almost always taken for a man. When I mention that I'm of the fairer sex, people say, “Waaaait a sec… you're a _girl_?”, like I'd posted that I'm a trained dolphin with internet access or something. Maybe it's just my writing style- a site that supposedly analyses your writing to determine your gender thought I was male for all four samples I submitted.
    
    To round things off, I remember **Drain Bead **complaining that no one gets her right, either, (back during my lurking phase).

To which @Cat_Fight (Cat Fight) replied

    The internet is a classic example of people being assumed to be be male until they prove otherwise (e.g. first-person protagonists in fiction). I'll admit, I have trouble keeping Dopers straight and have no shorthand mental description for most usernames, but I do remember someone commenting on your being female, and several other times that it's happend on the SDMB. It's bound to happen, but it is odd that being confused for male is often perceived as some sort of compliment.

@Elendil_s_Heir (Elendil's Heir) replied

    I'm occasionally confused for a dudette, even though I'm a dude. If I were otherwise, I'd be **Elendil's Heiress**.

After which, @Giles (Giles) added

    Elendil_s_Heir:
    
    > If I were otherwise, I'd be **Elendil's Heiress**.
    
    Off topic, I know, but a lot of people avoid gendered words like that, and would call both men and women “heirs” – and, for example, people of any gender who serve food in restaurants “waiters”.

@badbadrubberpiggy (badbadrubberpiggy) replied

    Malleus_Incus_Stapes:
    
    > I know **Covered_In_Bees** is (to borrow a phrase from Dave Barry) a male guy of the extreme opposite sex. Honest. But for some reason, my brain insists on thinking of him as a girl. Why? Brains don't need a reason.
    
    Until yesterday, I thought **Covered_In_Bees** was a woman, for no real reason I can think of.

@freckafree (freckafree) replied

    I hardly ever get confused about **FairyChatMom** and** AuntiePam**! Likewise **Chefguy.**

@Dr.Drake (Dr. Drake) replied

    **Malleus, Incus, Stapes!**I always assume you're male, but only because your name appears grammatically masculine. Checking a dictionary, I find that I'm wrong. You're actually pretty balanced if you discount #3 on the grounds that it's a neologism.
    
    **Malleus** : Latin, masculine, “hammer, maul”  
    **incus** : Latin, feminine,“anvil”*  
    **stapes** : Renaissance Latin, masculine, “stirrup”*
    
    *I mistakenly thought _incus_ was masculine second declension, not a bizarre feminine third declension ( _incūs_ , _incūdis_ )  
    *Romans didn't have stirrups, so scientists had to coin a word for “stirrup” in the 17th century.

@HeyHomie (HeyHomie) replied

    What about _you_ , **Malleus, Incus, Stapes**?
    
    I've always pegged you for a guy.
    
    * * *
    
    I'm a guy, FTR.

To which @Freudian_Slit (Freudian Slit) replied

    I always assume **Tabby Cat** is a girl. Well, I did until he made that whole thread about whether we saw tabbies as male or female.
    
    Used to think **Zeriel** and **Karl Grenze** were guys, too.
    
    Used to think **Cat In a Suit** was a girl until I played a mafia game with him and was corrected.

So @Patty_O_Furniture (Patty O'Furniture) replied

    badbadrubberpiggy:
    
    > Until yesterday, I thought **Covered_In_Bees** was a woman, for no real reason I can think of.
    
    Preposterous. No woman in her right mind would consent to being covered in bees.

@panache45 (panache45) replied

    Many people have assumed (incorrectly) that I'm female.
    
    Not that there's anything wrong with that.

After which, @Freudian_Slit (Freudian Slit) added

    Patty_O_Furniture:
    
    > Preposterous. No woman in her right mind would consent to being covered in bees.
    
    Are you female? I always thought so, but…ya never know.

@thirdwarning (thirdwarning) replied

    I assumed wrongly for Karl Grenze at first, but now I remember someone else being corrected about it.
    
    I seem to be mistaken for male here, often enough that I've noticed.

To which @Malleus_Incus_Stapes (Malleus, Incus, Stapes!) replied

    HeyHomie:
    
    > What about _you_ , **Malleus, Incus, Stapes**?
    > 
    > I've always pegged you for a guy.
    
    If this isn't a whoosh… see OP for details.

So @Covered_In_Bees (Covered_In_Bees!) replied

    This thread is disturbing. On one hand I want to be happy that people actually notice me. On the other hand, these people that notice me apparently think I'm a woman.
    
    It's probably what I had coming to me by going with an Eddie Izzard routine.
    
    > is (to borrow a phrase from Dave Barry) a male guy of the extreme opposite sex.
    
    Can you tell me what this means so I'm not jumping to any unwarranted conclusions? I'm not the biggest Dave Barry fan. _Yes_ I'm a guy still though.

To which @HongKongFooey (HongKongFooey) replied

    Malleus_Incus_Stapes:
    
    > Maybe it's because I think of Q as a feminine letter?
    
    How can you think of Q as feminine? it even has a little wang hanging off it.

To which @Freudian_Slit (Freudian Slit) replied

    If the name ends in “us” I usually assume it's a guy. So to the OP, I've always assumed you were male. Same with **Malthus**. I often tend to assume dopers that end in -a are female. **Lamia** , **Aanamika** , etc.

Then @Malleus_Incus_Stapes (Malleus, Incus, Stapes!) said

    Covered_In_Bees:
    
    > Can you tell me what this means so I'm not jumping to any unwarranted conclusions? I'm not the biggest Dave Barry fan. _Yes_ I'm a guy still though. 
    
    In some column he referred to a woman along the lines of “female woman of the extreme opposite sex”- it might have had something to do with bathrooms or dating or something. Anyway, the phrase just stuck in my mind. Sorry if I worried you.

So @freckafree (freckafree) replied

    Covered_In_Bees:
    
    > This thread is disturbing. On one hand I want to be happy that people actually notice me. On the other hand, these people that notice me apparently think I'm a woman.
    
    Clearly, the bees are covering too much.

So @Reply (Reply) replied

    Whoa. Weird. I always thought you ( **Malleus, Incus, Stapes!** ) were a guy because your name sounds like some sort of spell incantation out of a video game.
    
    And always assumed **Covered_in_Bees** was a girl because “bees” is one of those vaguely feminine terms to me, like “ladybugs” or “flowers”. My mental image was not “beekeeper” but “nudist hippie who runs with insects”.
    
    (…must…erase… image…!)
    
    **Qadcop** , on the other hand, I've always pegged as male. No woman would name herself something like that. If any name could be thought of as aggressively masculine, “Qadcop the Mercotan” is it.
    
    I've been spoken to as a Person of Unidentifiable Gender on several occasions (s/he?) too, and also mistaken for a different race once.

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