Comment by thrance

That's the rule the old geezers at the Academy insist on. But then you have idiotic situations where everyone is using "le" for e.g. the COVID virus, while Academicians cry about the D meaning "Disease", which is feminine, making it "la COVID" in their book. As for all languages, the most important rule is that usage prevails. And that's something we in France still have a hard time integrating into public discourse.