I am curious as to whether drawing attention to the author’s gender is purely undesirable, or only undesirable where that gender already makes up a substantial majority of the readership/authorship.
But you weren’t speaking in terms of the author’s gender. The preceeding sentence ends with “(...) no matter what you say or think about them.”, creating a second-person context, hence the implication of projecting the author’s gender onto the audience.
If you had phrased the following sentence in first person, or as an acknowledged-to-be-male third person, it likely would have bothered people less.
But you weren’t speaking in terms of the author’s gender. The preceeding sentence ends with “(...) no matter what you say or think about them.”, creating a second-person context, hence the implication of projecting the author’s gender onto the audience.
If you had phrased the following sentence in first person, or as an acknowledged-to-be-male third person, it likely would have bothered people less.