There's also hermaphrodite connectors, connecting any way whatsoever. And then there's connectors which are assigned male or female but when you look closely enough it's not so clear any more: The general rule is that whenever a stiff conductor mates with a a springy conductor then the stiff one is male and the springy one female, but then have a look at e.g. DB connectors (serial, parallel, VGA cables) and you see that the ground/shielding is stiff on the side that is springy for all the signal lines, and the male connector thus completely envelops the female one.

CEE 7/3 sockets (German) are unambigiously female, while CEE 7/5 sockets (French) have a male earth, and then you have bisexual plugs, CEE 7/7, mating with both.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't the rule that the female connector should be closer to the power source and the male closer to the appliance? So you don't accidentally shock yourself.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Live conductors should never be exposed, but that doesn't mean that they need to be female as in be the springy part, they can also be stiff conductors that are shielded somehow. Take say DIN 56905, hermaphrodite power cables for stage lighting and stuff