Talk:Gender of connectors and fasteners

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Untitled[edit]

Wow, no references. And for USB, who is he male and who is the female conenctor? Keul (talk) 16:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done 8^) Reify-tech (talk) 15:45, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Easy - the actual connections are hermaphrodite, and the devices usually on the end of the cable are plugs, the mating half usually on chassis or panel is therefore a hermaphrodite socket or receptacle. I am fairly certain that the old usage was to describe the actual connecting part first, and its apparent function next. eg the thing on the kettle was a male receptacle/socket, and the bit on the cable was a female plug. (This was never normally applied to the other end of the cable, which had a "plug", not a "male connector", which entered a "socket", not a female connector; these terms of course imported from a pre-electronics era!)Ripov (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:29, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Shouldn't the third and fourth paragraphs be switched? 68.226.124.199 03:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Don't know what this meant when written, probably irrelevant now. Reify-tech (talk) 15:45, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am trying to understand the precise definition of male and female connectors. Is it really true that the C13 plug/connector is male? The oracle that is google seems to think its female, and so do I. I would like to see a proper reference for this classification. As far as I can see, the C13 is a wonderful example of a female plug. Arbor 18:11, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree, and I suggested this to Smyth on his talk page, and his response suggests to me that he didn't really mean to imply it wasn't. I haven't got around to changing it; feel free to do so, especially if you can cite references. Sharkford 13:52, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)

"The gender of a connector is determined by the structure of its primary functional components—i.e., the conductors of an electrical connector, or the load-bearing parts of a fastener—and not by secondary features such as covers, shields or handles that may be installed for environmental protection, safe operation, etc."

This has always confused me. It would be great if we could have more examples, like D-subminiature, XLR, IEC connectors, and so on. Pictures showing male and female would be even better. - Omegatron 17:17, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

`The gender of a connector is determined by the structure of its primary functional components' ... much of the time, perhaps, but not everybody agrees. For example, the `Futaba 12" Servo Male Connector J' at http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXH441&P=0 is called male, though looking at the connectors themselves one would call it female. (This connector has metal `holes' into which pins from the matching connectors fit into. The assigned gender of this connector obviously comes from that of the plastic housing rather than the `primary functional components'.) Doug McLaren 21:49, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Male connectors are more easily damaged by bending. I believe that the Apple Macintosh was designed with all female connectors on the computer, as it is easier to replace a damaged cable than a port on the computer. Can anyone verify this? DPoon 13:53, 13 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Earlier Macs that used D-shell connectors only had female connectors of that type on the computer, I believe in part for the reason you cite. Other connectors were generally female as well, though the IEC-320 power input jack would probably be considered male. I would say that all the connectors used on modern Macs are female as well, though I could envision an argument about the gender of USB and Firewire chassis connectors. Whatever gender you think they are, they are well standardized and designed to minimize the likelihood of damage from repeated insertions. One other possible exception is the console serial port used on the Xserve Macs. These are the same DB-9 types used on PCs and they may be male, I'm not sure. In this case Apple needed to be compatable with the console switches used in server farms.--agr 05:42, 14 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Historically, prior to the feminism/70's?, female connectors were referred to as Jills. Jack(s) and Jill(s) were usually reserved as jargon amongst the male trade workers. Find an old tech (guy) to ask, because I'm pretty sure no one documented it. Really don't understand how Jack survived and ended up being both. 143.238.123.8 (talk) 15:20, 30 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. Can anybody find some useful citations or references for this? Even mention in fictional works would help document this usage, if no official refs can be found. Reify-tech (talk) 15:45, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I believe I've tracked down the origin of 'jack', meaning telephone socket. See Talk:Jack_plug#History (disclaimer: original research, but with references). In the 1880s there was no mention of Jills, so perhaps that was a humorous addition thought up in the 20th century. --Heron (talk) 11:40, 9 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I was active in ham radio and electronics during the '60s, and collected equipment from the '40s and '50s. Phone plugs and phone jacks, RCA plugs and RCA jacks, and other kinds of plugs and jacks were in common use in radio and telephone equipment under those exact names. Jacks were also called "sockets", but I never read or heard of anyone calling a plug a "jack" or a jack a "jill". That would have been incredibly confusing! This is clearly just something that someone made up as a joke. Michael Geary (talk) 12:58, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
From telephone use, a "jack" was always formally the socket. Hence jack plug, as a plug for a jack (rather than itself being a jack). Andy Dingley (talk) 14:42, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Examples[edit]

A picture is worth a thousand words. As people have posted above, we need more examples. I think the text could probably be reduced if there were a thorough list of labeled pictures of male and female connectors, particularly tricky ones like VGA. —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 23:32, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Question on SKT / PL abbreviations[edit]

Hi!

I just tried to order D-Sub connectors at a big electronics-shop. They use the "male" / "female" names but also two abbreviations called "SKT" and "PL" at the gender description. I googled a little but could not find any reference, what that stands for. As the had no meaningful images I can only guess, that it stands for "Socket" and "Plug". Perhaps this could be integrated in the article if anyone knows for sure, what the meaning is...

Thanks, Andy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.144.1.62 (talk) 15:19, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gender vs Sex[edit]

It is somewhat curious that the word 'gender' is used with 'male' and 'female', which are terms denoting sex (whereas 'masculine' and 'feminine' are related but distinct terms for gender). It would be lovely if someone with a background in linguistics of gender could summarise relevant literature on this topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.29.4.217 (talk) 17:54, 28 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sex would definitely be more correct for this article, basically sex is on the body, gender is in the mind.Jackintosh11 (talk) 00:43, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with User:Andy Dingley (who reverted your abrupt changes) that "gender" is the WP:COMMONNAME that is used in serious technical documentation for this topic. Please do not make undiscussed, unannounced, and unsourced major changes to articles in an attempt to conform established usage to your pet philosophy. Reify-tech (talk) 04:37, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It does need to be changed from gender to sex. This is not a "pet philosophy" as a traitor might call it. It is the scientifically accurate explanation. This is a technical issue. Sex is the word that is used in biology, for example. Usage of gender for a Wikipedia commonname or whatever is simply an error, not an opinion. How do we go about correcting this here and site-wide? Firebombzero (talk) 20:21, 31 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"Gender" is used in technical documentation and serious discussions. The word "sex" has too many irrelevant meanings and connotations unrelated to the subject treated here. This is a technical article documenting industry usage, not a political forum for language reform. Your references to "scientifically accurate" and "traitor" aren't very relevant to any useful discussion. Reify-tech (talk) 20:42, 31 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Reify-tech is correct here: gender is the word people actually use, which is what matters. This article is not about human identity, biology, culture or sexuality. Additionally, the strong distinction claimed between the words sex and gender is both recent and observed only within particular communities. Dictionaries like the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster list sex as the primary definition for the non-grammatical usage of gender. (Words take their meaning from how they are actually used. Technical prescriptions about language are only prescriptive within that technical discipline.) Differentiated usage of sex and gender is clearly growing in popularity, but it is not at present an "error" to use gender to mean sex in a general setting. (This is off topic, but I will also say that I believe you generally harm your cause if you make people feel scolded over things that lack any signs of malice.) Gerweck (talk) 02:41, 11 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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USB connectors, in computing, refer to "plug" and "receptacle"[edit]

From article on USB: "The female connector mounted on the host or device is called the receptacle, and the male connector attached to the cable is called the plug.[20](2–5 – 2–6) The official USB specification documents also periodically define the term male to represent the plug, and female to represent the receptacle."
From article on USB hardware: "Thus, USB cables have different ends: A and B, with different physical connectors for each. Each format has a plug and receptacle defined for each of the A and B ends. USB cables have plugs, and the corresponding receptacles are on the computers or electronic devices."
This article (Gender of connectors...) should be edited to reflect these standards. Oaklandguy (talk) 23:00, 2 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oaklandguy, any reason you are unable to WP:DOIT yourself? ~Kvng (talk) 12:50, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comparison To Human Gender[edit]

I think it’s important to make a distinction here. Gender for connectors was contrived in more “patriarchal” times, where it was thought there were physical differences between male and female humans. Gender of connectors at that time was easy to explain. Now, to explain gender of connectors, one needs to explain the difference between human and connectors with relation to gender. 160.20.230.18 (talk) 16:53, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Really good point. Hopefully someone will expand on this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.246.108.45 (talk) 23:31, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I added "cisgender" to eliminate any possible confusion.--agr (talk) 00:07, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Wonderful insight here. Great to know we’re concerned with doing this right. As society progresses we may one day also need to address gender of people who identify as fasteners. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.246.108.45 (talk) 22:54, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The analogy is about biological sex (ergo the sexual connotations) and there are sex differences in humans. The word "gender" is only used because objects can't have a biological sex. It has nothing to do with human gender. Prinsgezinde (talk) 11:34, 27 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The reason the term gender and male and female was used to refer to the two types of plugs/sockets was that it resembled a penis and vagina, if I may be so frank. At the time it was generally accepted that male's had penis's and woman had vagina. Since then indeed the biological community largely has moved on from the limited conception of gender and sex to the more recent understanding that some people may identify in their brains as a gender other then the one they where assigned at birth based on the type of genitalia that possessed. This is all well and good in biology but doesn't really pertain to the the issue of the gender of connectors and fasteners which do not have a biological sex. Sure, maybe it might have been better if we had come up with a better analogy then "gender" but since we didn't and since this is the current terminology being used in tech/engineering circles, we should continue to use it as it's currently used in the reference to connectors and fasteners per Wikipedia common usage policy. If an alternative term for gender with regard to connectors and fasteners gains traction at some point then we can edit the article to reflect this at that time. But realize as of 2022, Gender in this context is not connected in anyway to biological sex or gender, it's just an analogy to a penis and vagina and no one going to replace the "gender of a connector and fastener" with the "genitals of a of a connector and fastener" or refer to male and female connectors/testicles as "penis and vagina connectors/testicles" even though that would be more accurate in a modern biological analogy sense.--Notcharliechaplin (talk) 19:22, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Genderless vs hermaphrodite vs self-mating[edit]

This article conflates genderless, hermaphrodite, self-mating. Yet, they are 3 different things.


  • Sexless (a.k.a. genderless or agender): a connector that has neither male nor female contacts; it may be self-mating (fig. 1.2a) or not (fig. 1.2c)
  • Hermaphrodite: a connector that has both male and female contacts; it could be self-mating (fig. 1.2b) or not (fig. 1.2c)
  • Self-mating: a connector whose mate is identical; it can be sexless (fig. 1.2a) or hermaphrodite (fig. 1.2b)
  • Non self-mating: a connector whose mate is different; it can be sexless (fig. 1.2c) or hermaphrodite (fig. 1.2d)

If there are no objections, I would like to edit the "Genderless (hermaphroditic)" section accordingly.

Davide Andrea (talk) 21:16, 19 May 2022 (UTC)[reply] 

 — Preceding unsigned comment added by DavideAndrea (talk • contribs) 21:52, 14 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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