A gender changer is a hardware device placed between two cable connectors of the same type and gender. An example is a cable connector shell with either two female or two male connectors on it (male-to-male or female-to-female), used to correct the mismatches that result when interconnecting two devices or cables with the same gender of connector.
Gender changers are used for RS-232C ports in either the original DB-25 or the IBM AT DE-9 format. They are also used when extending any sort of cable that normally has plugs on both ends (rather than a socket on one and plug on the other), however in this case it is usually called just an "extender", such as with F connectors, BNC connectors, and various RJ connectors used in telephony and computer networking.
Gender changers are used in professional audio to adapt XLR connectors, RCA connectors, Speakon connectors and TRS phone connectors.
Alternative names for a gender changer include "gender bender", "gender blender", "gender mender" and "homosexual adapter".
Read more about Gender Changer: Null Modem
Famous quotes containing the word gender:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered mens work is almost universally given higher status than womens work. If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)