To the reader: Tell me whether you thought this was a man or a woman, a boy or a girl.

I always assume the unnamed protagonist is the same sex as the author unless told otherwise. It’s not the best way to go about it, but that’s what I do. Now if I don’t know the sex of the author, THEN I have to make an assumption. I guess I’d say the character’s shirt is loose, and that leads me toward a man, as women tend to wear tighter shirts these days, a longish haired man, whose hair can be wafted and blown, one who has experience with children, or enough to know what a 5-year old tugging feels like. Doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be a teenager with the stature of a full grown adult, though. I still vote man. *shrug

I lean towards Elshas judgement though for a moment in the first paragraph I felt it was a female . Possibly a male with a tenderness that we assume would only come from a female.

I would say female due to the relation to feeding a child. I also would automatically find the emotions and feelings more likely to be a woman’s.
Really nice write, by the way, I love the fourth paragraph.
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