About the origins of the word "gender"

submitted by BiologyIsReal from (self.GCdebatesQT)

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[–]BiologyIsReal[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Gender is not a biological term, rather it's used in grammar, sociology, psychology and feminist theory. Yes, there has been an increase in scientific literature in people using "gender" and "gender differences" instead of "sex" and "sex differences". However, you can still find plenty of use of plain old "sex", meaning the biological category, not the sexual act. And, of course there are several multi-word terms that don't use gender (e.g. sexual dimorphism, sex determination, sex hormones, sex chromosomes, sex-linked inheritance, etcetera). Me not using the word gender as a synonym for sex won't change that, especially when I keep talking about why sex matters. It's transactivists who are trying to make sex to be unspeakable.

[–]SnowAssMan 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

What should happen to all the terms that have 'gender' in them: gender-roles, gender identity, gender inequality etc? You say 'gender' isn't a biological term & that only 'sex' is. Are the aforementioned terms referencing biology? If you say "sex-roles" instead of "gender-roles", is 'sex' no longer a biological term? What's the difference between "sex" & "gender" within the gender-role vs. sex-role comparison?

Then there are terms like "gendered behavioural patterns", "feminine gender-role preference", "gender non-conformity", "cross-gender conformity". "feminising gender indicators" "gendered language" – can the word "sex" really do the job?

Everyone was saying "gender" instead of "sex" before transgenderism arrived on the scene. So if the word isn't to blame, why do you think disposing of it will solve the problem?

[–]MarkTwainiac 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Everyone was saying "gender" instead of "sex" before transgenderism arrived on the scene.

No we weren't.

Some people started saying "gender" when they meant "sex," and that helped open the way for transgenderism to take hold amongst the elites and the spread amongst the general population.

[–]SnowAssMan 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

How on Earth did using the word "gender" as a synonym for sex "help open the way for transgenderism"?

Again, gender has always been a synonym for sex. It's only 2nd wave feminist theorists who decided that the two words should refer to different things based on what Stoller said. Transgenderism doesn't use either of those definitions, but if the ideology exploited anything, it's the feminist insistence that gender & sex are not synonyms. Every time you insist that gender & sex not be treated as synonyms you help the transgenderist cause.