DiscussionWhen did "gender" and "sex" start having different meanings?

submitted by CancelPowerSuper Bi Male from self.LGBDropTheT

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[–]HelloMomo 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I can't cite this, so grain of salt, but I once heard someone claim that "gender" was a term coined by the Victorians as a euphemism for "sex", because "sex" sounded too sexual.

[–]PenseePansyBio-Sex or Bust 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I think this is surprisingly close to the mark, actually-- it just happened rather later than that. It wasn't until the 20th century that the word "sex" took on the meaning of "sexual activity" (as in Mae West's 1926 stage play, Sex); previously, it had always been shorthand for "biological sex". So that's when people got squeamish about using it. Plus of course there was confusion where there had once been none-- by "sex", did you mean "male/female", or "sex act"? That's how "gender" got repurposed as a synonym for "biological sex". Until the shift in meaning for "sex", we'd never needed one before. But once that happened, even the full term "biological sex" seemed too indecorous, I guess.

Unbelievable that something so silly could lead to the dismantling of LGB and women's hard-won protections, the destruction of civil rights, and the deliberate physical damaging of children, isn't it? :(

[–]HelloMomo 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Then what was the word for sexual activity in that time? Or was there not really a clinical term for it before, and it was mostly spoken of with flowery language, vulgar words, and euphemisms?

[–]PenseePansyBio-Sex or Bust 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think that the clinical terms were "coitus" and "sexual intercourse" (the latter is more recent), though they would have only referred to the PiV variety. (I'm guessing that it was the development of the second term which led to "sex"'s modern meaning.) Other than these formal terms, yeah, it was largely euphemism-city-- either that or "vulgar" words which were not to be used in so-called "polite company". But my impression is that you just didn't speak of the subject at all in everyday discourse. At least directly; you would talk around it. And even then, the talk would mostly be about reproduction within marriage. Non-reproductive (and particularly same-sex) sexuality went mostly unacknowledged. In fact, until comparatively recently, I think there was little awareness that homosexuality or bisexuality even existed.

[–]HelloMomo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If I recall, there's a bit in Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold about how in like lesbian community in Buffalo, New York, in the 30s or 40s they used the term "intimacy" to mean sex, and only in the 40s or 50s did they start using the word "sex"

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Also no citations but I seem to remember something about the history of England. Where the royals and upper class used "intercourse" because it was related to French. The term "fuck" became known as a swear because it was the term used by the peasants and was somehow related to a different language from Germanic tribes.

Sex is a category specifically related to reproduction.

[–]HelloMomo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

English has a lot of Germanic (original Old English) vs Latin (by way of French) etymology leading to having different connotations for words that are technically the same meaning!

Like "smell" (Germanic) vs "odor" (Latin). Or "cow" (English, because they spoke English out in the fields) vs "beef" (because they spoke French in the castle where it was prepared all fancy).