There is also a nice stand-up sketch from Roland Magdane about it, also making jokes about the feminity of "Le sac à main" ou "le collant"..... : ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQo9-8HCyY

There is no obvious logical. In all the european laguages, except english, all the words are devided into feminin gender and masculin gender ( it's even worse in german and russian), but the thing is : wether a word is masculin or feminin is not based on the aspect of the thing. The look doest determibate the gender of a word. I recomand you to read this article ( not useful to read after the title " adectives ") : http://www.italki.com/article/140/gender-obsession-in-french-chivalry-or-burden#.U7J3jtoayK1

Une barbe, un rouge à lèvres ...... La barbe est portée par les hommes ...... très très très rarement par une femme. Le rouge à lèvres est porté par les femmes ......... généralement. Cordialement