“Plug it in… no, that’s upside down, flip it over… no, still upside down, flip it over again… there you go.”
The USB connector is a magical shape with two upside downs.
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One of the theories floating around on twitter is that they did google it, but didn’t click through to the wikipedia page.
The google search preview pulls up the first image on the wikipedia page, a male symbol.
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Not true, assuming you actually click on the Wikipedia link. It shows both the male (Mars) and female (Venus) symbols, and even shows the Mercury symbol for a virgin female (new to me) and the trans symbols.
Are we really getting to the point where we’re too lazy to click on links? In my day we had actual encyclopedias, and card catalogs, and we had to check references and everything…
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In all honesty, it took me a second to realize it was the wrong symbol. I would say that it is a common symbol, but at the same time I am sure a lot of people don’t encounter them in every day life and get them confused. Self included.
So yes, they should have double checked. Editors should have caught it. At the same time, and coming from someone who gets files ready for print all day long, mistakes happen ALL THE TIME.
The male symbol is the first image on the wiki entry, thus probably what is previewed. So this compounds issue when you check, but don’t double check.
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Think i’ve been looking at too many dodgy sites on teh internet, for my first thoughts on that icon was:
“A fisting icon?”*
*sorry 
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The mnemonic I use is a version I saw once for impotency, with a drooping arrow and a subtitle “Daddy’s impotent”. The imagery doesn’t - can’t - work with the ‘+’. Childish I know, but eh it worked. Until then I could never keep them straight.
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The way I was taught was incredibly sexist (but, for the same reason, also incredibly memorable): Venus/female is a hand-mirror, and Mars/male is a spear and shield.
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Yep, I would have used 
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That’s not sexist. It’s literally what the symbols represent.
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Well at least they made it pink, you know, for the women.
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I thought I read otherwise, but can’t be bothered to look it up.
Anyway, I meant the association of man=warrior, woman=vain was sexist, not the lesson itself.
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Mars was certainly a warrior. Not sure why Venus would have a mirror, but there’s probably a reason for that.
Yup. Those Intertubes are nothing but trouble. Take my advice and stay far away! 
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I find it incredibly difficult to believe that a graphic designer could use the wrong symbol because we live and breathe signs, icons and typography. It’s almost too dumb to believe. My five year old knows which is which how someone that does magazine covers for a living is more ignorant than her?!
Interns? Interns who are dicks? Even as a techwriter I know enough about my brainfarts to read a wikipedia artcle for context before laying things out.
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Well, there’s a giant cock up…
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Here’s a different explanation:
Each heavenly body, along with its god, was also associated with a particular metal. So, for example, the Sun (Helios) was associated with gold (note: in truth, the Sun is white in the human visual spectrum, not yellow); Mars (in Greek, Thouros) was associated with the hard, red metal used to make weapons, iron; and Venus (in Greek, Phosphorus) with the softer metal that can turn green, copper.
Writing about these metals, the Greeks would refer to them by their respective gods’ names, and then as now, these were spelled with a combination of letters; after awhile, a type of shorthand arose; for example, relevant to Mars (Thouros) and Venus (Phosphorus):
The symbols were used to represent their metals until the 1700s, but in 1751 the taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus used them to denote the male and female parents of a hybrid plant. It was only later that other scientists started to use them for zoology, human biology and genetics (and while I can’t find definite proof for this, the female symbol only came into use as a political icon in the 1960s). In 1845 a doctor named Pliny Earle deviated from this convention by using circles for women and squares for men, and these are the symbols now used in genetics research.
Incidentally, the windows shortcuts for gender symbols are Alt+11 for male and Alt+12 for female.
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We ALL like pink! We know because BIOLOGY! /s
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