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P.S.:  Or conversely, another interpretation could be the reverse: when Loretta “thought she was a woman” she was wrong even though she was born a woman, because she hadn’t (yet) discovered she was really a he — a transman — and so the potentially offensive coda “get back to where you once belonged” would actually be positively encouraging/affirming what should be her new identity as the true identity.

Mr. Moonlight said
Saying she “thought” she was a woman but was a man, could be read as denying her her “truth”, or whatever the expression would be.

  

That begs the question of which of the two is the “truth” here.

Von Bontee said
I guess it’s worth noting that Paul addresses and refers to Loretta as “she” and “her” throughout, despite categorizing her as “another man” at one point

  

Excellent point!

I think in Joe’s description it’s implied that Paul didn’t intend to switch the “does pretty face” line and did it by accident, then decided to keep it in; however, I’m not sure I trust memories of tiny things like that.  I think what Paul intended was a light-hearted inversion of what one would expect — why not?  By the way, Desmond staying at home to do his pretty face can be done (or imagined) while remaining firmly heterosexual yet playful and secure in his manhood, or while entertaining bisexual fantasies, without the need to be propelled inexorably all the way from A to Z to transgender.

I revisited the song just now and focused in on the two parts (separated in the song by another chorus):

1) happy ever after in the marketplace, Desmond lets the children lend a hand, Molly stays at home and does her pretty face and in the evening she’s still singing with the band

2) happy ever after in the marketplace, Molly lets the children lend a hand, Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face and in the evening she’s a singer with the band.

On second thought, it seems even odder that Paul would “forget”, since the structure of #2 is clearly switching out the two characters in a mirror image, not just with regard to the “pretty face” component.  That would be an odd thing to “forget”.

Secondly, listening intently over and over (4 times) with my super serious headphones that completely cover my ears, it’s pretty clear that during #1, Paul sings (caps added for emphasis):

1) happy ever after in the marketplace, Desmond lets the children lend a hand, Molly stays at home and does HIS pretty face and in the evening she’s still singing with the band.

Now THAT would constitute a bonafide “mistake” — one, however, that was evidently left in.  I suspect that Paul, exhausted from re-recording and re-cobbling the song with so many takes on so many days, made that mistake toward the end when everything else was perfect, and just left it in hoping nobody would notice.  As it turns out, he was mostly right, and only one person would notice — some nobody on the Internet 54 years later typing in some thread on Beatles Bible…

I don’t know — all my life I thought he was saying “her” but now after listening intently I have to say I hear more “his” than “her”