Images of Subtle Sexism

"[T]he LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

"Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." -Genesis 2:7-22


Check out this Modern English gender pronoun chart that's in the Wikipedia entry for "He":



Observations:

1) While the letter "f" precedes "m" alphabetically, notice how "male" precedes "female" on this chart (and others).

2) Also note how in the "impersonal" category, the order of pronouns is:

"higher male animal"
"higher female animal"
"lower animal"


Is it simply a given in the English language that the male category precedes the female category which is, apparently, one step above "lower animal"?