There are 3 choices, 7 votes for Eye-Beam's debate

Sex vs. Gender

Many people incorrectly use the word gender when they should use the word sex.


  • Clarifying the words gender and sex.

    The word gender refers to a gramatical category, while sex refers to a biological one. In the United States, on many documents, such as the drivers license, you will see a place marked for sex. Usually this place will be marked with an M or F for male or female. When you want to know if a child is a boy or a girl the proper question is, "what sex is the child?" not, "what is the child's gender?"

    A word is not alive, and therefore does not have a sex. The word him, is masculine in gender because of this distinction.

    The words sex and gender are often used interchangably today. And it is sometimes difficult to even maintain consistency in using either the one word or the other. There are several reasons for this confusion.

    First of all, many people want to use the word gender to avoid evoking the sexual act in the imagination of their audience. Since the word sex is very powerful for getting people's attention, this may be wise. But some people are trying to expand the word gender in a different direction. They use it to describe what some would call a person's "sexual persona" that would be whether they identify with things that have a cultural association with masculinity or femininity. This would include things like feeling comfortable wearing a dress, being a homemaker, cooking, knitting, being sexually attracted to males, etc.

    The word gender is often expanded to cover the concept of sexual persona by academics. I believe that the reason this is done is to emphasize their belief that while a person's biological configuration is fixed, their sexual persona is more changable. It is part of the idea that there is no fundamental difference between males and females that is inherent in human nature.

    All above is fact so far as I can determine. My opinion on the matter is this: Linguistically it is accurate to refer to male and female as the sexes, not the genders. The language seems to be making a transition to using the word gender to replace the word sex in this sense. This may be a good thing but is causes confusion and inconsistency. The confusion and inconsistency is bad. Regardless of whether one wishes to use gender in this increasingly popular way, I recommend that gender not be used to refer to the concept I have described as the sexual persona of a person. This concept is a controversial one that seems to be intended to refute the reality of differences between the sexes. That there are differences between the sexes is so well demonstrated by scientific evidence today that it is not possible to rationally believe that this difference does not exist. Also, there is quite enough confusion over the proper use of the word gender already, due to its increasing use as a replacement for the word sex in some contexts.

    42%  Voted for by Eye-Beam, petethemeat, Piscean Wisdom.
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  • Gender / Sex

    Are men and women different in the ways they think and act? Yes, but these difference stem from social influences, not biological ones. Many, but not all, feminists agree with this view. They emphasize the distinction between gender and sex. Sex refers to biological characteristics; gender refers to the social roles and cultural standards associated with sex. Gender refers to attitudes and behavior about sex differences, not sex differences themselves, which are biological differences. Gender roles are thus the different positions society assigns the different sexes.

    28%  Voted for by Energizer Bunny, dysperdis.
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  • in brief

    Sex is between your legs; gender is between your ears.

    28%  Voted for by kittensushi, Tikitactinker.
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