The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French
dictionary.
So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough,
by gender and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be
a masculine or feminine noun.

Both groups were required to give four reasons for their
recommendation.

The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of
the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other
computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory
for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your paycheque on accessories for it.

The women's group, however,
concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"),
because:
1. In order to get their attention,you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the
time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realise that if you'd waited
a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.