Have to agree that both genders do this to an equal extent, but the methods they employ may look a little different. Given that a lot of this type of behavior is learned in early childhood, that may not be too surprising.

Pretty much all human beings use passive aggressive behaviors at one time or another, but there are people who have made it a habit because it serves them. What'll really blow your mind is when you move past the point of thinking they do it to get out of having to do something they don't want to do, and you realize they do it because the sense of power and control they get from your reaction actually gives them pleasure. There's a book titled The Angry Smile that spells out the aspects of passive aggressive behavior very well.

My increasingly disordered H is prone to some of these "typical man things.". Though in his case, he has lost mental ability over the last few years, so it's hard to say where the line between intention and inability is anymore.

My MIL and mother both manifest PA behaviors as "accidental destroyers" among other things (which can be much worse than the little games H tries to play). A few years ago when the inlaws were visiting, no one was paying the attention to MIL that she wanted (busy with other things, not ignoring her). I watched her take FIL's phone and carefully balance it precariously in a side pocket on her bag. Couldn't figure out what she was doing, but it looked suspicious. About five minutes later, she too loudly exclaimed that she needed to show me her new bag and swung it around, sending FIL's phone flying and skidding across the tile floor. Of course he was mad, and they had a fight, which was probably a means to an end for her, and exactly what she wanted.

Had I suggested that she did it on purpose, she probably would have loved to light into me about how paranoid and cruel I am for suggesting that it was more than an accident

Passive aggressive behaviors are best ignored unfortunately. Plausible deniability is a hard mountain to climb.