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[–]MarkTwainiac 25 insightful - 1 fun25 insightful - 0 fun26 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

gender used to just be a synonym for sex.

Gender has gradually come to be a euphemism for sex in the Anglophone world only over the last 30 years, and the conflation of the two has become widespread & common even more recently than that. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, everyone used sex properly to mean male/female - and the focus of feminists traditionally was on sex, sexism, sex discrimination, sex stereotypes, sex roles, sex quotas, sex crimes, sexual harassment, sex abuse, sex differences, sex parity in pay, etc. All this talk of "gender" - and the use of obfuscating terms like "gender-based violence," "gender equity" and "gender pay gap" - is a new development, and is completely foreign to people who came of age in earlier eras.

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

The sex in "sex stereotypes" has a different meaning to the sex in "sex crimes". It's not inherently a bad idea to have separate words for the act of sex vs being male or female.

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

But the sex in each case fundamentally refers to reproduction, the way many species perpetuate themselves. Humans & many other animals and plants reproduce sexually, using sex organs. In all sexually reproducing species, there are two sexes - male & female - & making new life requires the merging of a male & female gamete, which are made by sex organs. Sex discrimination is treating people unfairly due to their reproductive class/category, aka their sex. Sex crimes are crimes that involve sex organs (of either perpetrator or victim, or of both), or have sexual motives - cuz the perp is seeking sexual pleasure. And the reason humans have evolved to have sexual pleasure in the first place is because it provides a motivation to engage in the acts that can & do lead to reproduction & thus continuation of the species... So sex in both cases is all of a piece.