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Re: OT: sex/gender

From:Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...>
Date:Saturday, October 18, 2003, 14:38
>As I understand the history of the term, _gender_ was commonly only >used to refer to the grammatical category until the 19th-20th century, >when it came to be used as a more "polite" alternative to _sex_. The >division of _sex_ and _gender_ into biological and >social/psychological aspects respectively is indeed somewhat more
It dates back about 40 years.
>recent. The words are in this sense essentially technical terms as >used by anthropologists and social theorists. Obviously this >distinction is rarely observed in ordinary discourse; however, it >seems reasonable to employ it in a discussion where you are, in fact, >distinguishing between these senses.
And there are bodies of people besides anthropologists (e.g. the transgendered) who adhere to this difference in meaning between "sex" and "gender". _________________________________________________________________ Never get a busy signal because you are always connected with high-speed Internet access. Click here to comparison-shop providers. https://broadband.msn.com