My darling wife came up with this one, and I love it.

Man-Deaf: the strange ability men have to utterly fail to hear something being said by a woman.

The term was born of her experiences at work, where certain male subordinates often seem physically incapable of hearing her give them instructions. They’re not ignoring her intentionally; like the frogs in the famous McCullough/Lettvin study, the sensoria of these particular men seem capable of perceiving only a limited spectrum of stimuli, the words of a woman not being among them.

Strangely enough, this neologism coincides with the recent release of the findings of a study conducted by scientists at Sheffield University in the UK that shows that men have more trouble processing the highly modulated sounds of the female voice than the simpler tones of the male voice, and in fact process female voices in the same part of the brain that processes music.

Sorry Dear, but it seems they might have a quasi-legitimate medical excuse for their inattention. My advice is not to press the issue; they might end up applying for protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act. 😀