Do you think of flies as male or female?

[Wendyer]

Just spent an hour chasing a fly round the room and shouting loudly at him. Well - I made the presumption he was a “him”, and then realised I always think of flies as male.

Jeff Goldblum😳

Hmm. Mostly male then I think.

Cars and ships are always 'she' or 'her' IME, interested to know which languages have them as male. Not sure about planes. Bird?

@tilder car is masculine in Spanish or Portuguese for example, neutral gender in German. Ship or boat is again, masculine in French, Spanish...

'The bird' is masculine in Spanish (one of my mother tongues), but then many species are feminine words.

It's definitely an interesting topic, because it's very hard for my brain to comprehend why a ship or a plane would ever be referred to as 'she', when in my mind and languages it has been a 'he', for decades.

I also struggled with the sun being feminine and the moon masculine in German, after it being the exact opposite in my languages all my life. But German is another nightmare altogether

Who’d have thought a little bastard fly could provoke an interesting discussion!

I suppose I think of cars as feminine - you usually hear people say things like “start her up”. Ships as feminine too, and the sun.

You’re right, me too!

Spiders are female.

Bees, too

Male and I have no idea why! Maybe because of The Fly with Jeff Goldblum 😂

I hope the fly isn't upset about you misgendering him...or her...or them.

Male.

Males/little shites

Male.

They are dirty and annoying.

I try to deliberately not assume animals are male or call them "he", but now you ask I don't really think of flies as either (though I realise they are). I do think of spiders as female though and say "come on madam" as I scoop them up! Bees are female. Woodlice seem more male though. Magpies are all female.

Mosquitoes are female as only female mosquitoes suck the life blood out of people and animals. They need it to produce eggs

Male because they’re irritating AF.

Male, for sure, though i appreciate there must be some female ones.

Male they are annoying and have dirty habits.

Bees are female, spiders are male. Wasps are dead if they get into my house. I hate them. I've never stopped to wonder about their gender. I even chase them down the garden to try and splat them.

This is something that I hadn't thought about until recently. We're trying to breed our own insects for our gecko and suddenly it dawned on me I had no clue.

Female, I speak another language which is gendered so I think of them as female. Like spiders, wasps, bees and cats
Ladybirds, beetles, and worms are male.

He’s probably more upset at the fact I was doing my best to kill him than at the fact I may have misgendered him/her/them!

Interesting you think of ladybirds as male @deadlanguage. And @MoonOnASpoon, magpies are male!

Good question
bees are female
flies are male
wasps are androgynous

I sometimes wonder if assigning male or female to an insect or inanimate object is born of sexism. 'Male because it's dirty'.

Then you get this.

This has reminded me that Emily in Paris taught me that the vagina is male gender!

I mean wtf??!! A vagina is never male. Who made that male?

Flies are male, as are ants, moths and bumble bees. Butterflies and ladybirds are female. Goodness knows how they all reproduce 😂

The really noisy ones with massive shiny green bums - male.
The smaller ones without attention seeking bums are asexual I think.

I think it depends what the fly identifies as. Before I ensure it leaves the house or I kill it.

@AmyDudley

The really noisy ones with massive shiny green bums - male. The smaller ones without attention seeking bums are asexual I think.

Attention seeking bums! I think I have one of those - it’s certainly big enough!