Egg on Face

I feel quite foolish.  That’s not a new feeling for me unfortunately.  However unlike some of the occasions when it happens this one was totally avoidable.  Not only was it avoidable but it arose because I was trying to be ‘clever’.  A friend yesterday said that someone was a ‘thinking man’ and I said that that was an oxymoron.  I said it for a quick laugh.  Unfortunately I sometimes wonder if it’s actually true: particularly so far as I am concerned.

In this case Katherine (she of The Last Visible Dog) had posted some lovely photos which included an autumnal tree with a Monarch Butterfly on the tree.  I made the comment “Your Monarch was out rather late wasn't she?”  The actual gender of the beautiful creature was not in my thoughts.  I was just avoiding the assumption that everything is automatically referred to in the masculine gender. 

Years ago when a lot of my work involved legal issues and it became impossible always to say he and/or she I always use to add ‘the use of the male gender shall include the female gender – Interpretation Act 1889’.  Of course one would look silly saying that in a non-legal context.  In the same vein Andy always used to avoid any reference to specific genders to the extent that he refused to say person because of it’s male-specific connotation.

Anyway I digressed.  Katherine made the point that the Monarch was, in fact a male and not a female.  The markings of the two sexes are markedly different and I had, of course, to agree.

Motto: Don’t try to be ‘clever’ and, if you do, then think first.