Portrait in Georgia Gender Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #4

And her slim body, white as the ash
of black flesh after flame. (6-7)

This is the first time we get any sense of the victim's gender. Why is it significant that we learn this gender only at the very end of the poem? Do you think that this comment definitely means that the victim is a woman? Can we still believe the victim is a man? Or both at the same time?