>Thank you for sharing this Jane. It's amazing that it's still such an issue but yeah, a great example of how deeply >rooted our presumptions are.

This actually happened to me, in a way, with one now long-departed Wikipedia editor. Despite a female-suffixed username*, I assumed this editor was a male because she was a flagrant asshole in some AfDs in a way that (in my experience) only men ever are. I was actually stunned to find out she was indeed a she.

 

Daniel Case

 

*As most of us know, username-based gender assumptions cut both ways. Users Hersfold and Nancy (see the explanation on his userpage) are both men, yet regularly deal with new editors assuming based on their names that they’re female. And I know they’re not the only ones.