With any kind of electric based cable there s always some kind of voltage that comes across them if only the signals themselves so obviously many cables don t carry a supply of power but most still refer to the end with the center that plugs into the middle of the other end as the male end So it appears to me that what mattered more until HDMI and USB and perhaps FireWire came out that s what mattered more for the designationthe middle part of one end plugging into the hole on the other end So still why not for HDMI and USB since again plenty of cables don t carry a supply of power but still went by that designation