Finally someone else who realizes the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets a bit irritated by people saying ‘gender’ when they mean ‘sex’, so I wanted to thank you for making me feel that I'm not alone in that respect! I don't know why people no
seem to be afraid of the word ‘sex’, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's something repressed and/or puritanical behind it. I have no objection to the use of ‘gender’ to describe a person's psychological sexual identification, indeed, for that purpose I find it useful. As you are no doubt aware, strictly speaking gender is a grammatical term referring to the sex of a word, eg actor/actress. Incidentally, I was born in (West) Berlin and in German all nouns for professions are gendered, eg Arzt/Ärztin for male/female doctor, so the use of ‘actress’ rather than ‘actor’ is just natural for me and doesn't involve and is certainly not intended to ascribe any value judgements, ie that one is in any way lesser than the other. However, I understand that some people do view an ‘actress’ as inferior to an ‘actor’ and as such I respect the wishes of female actors who would prefer to be referred to as an actor, rather than an actress. Perhaps it's because we don't have so many gendered nouns, apart from those that have -wo/man, eg police officers? I'll leave it at that, before I get carried away and start rambling.
Anyway, thank you again, and also for your interesting pontifications in general.
I am increasingly irritated by this generation’s insistence that they are the first to have discovered both sex and the LGBTQ community. To add just two items to your list: ‘Tales from the City‘ and ‘Brideshead Revisited’ just two texts which predate the millennium and appear to have discovered same sex attraction... 🙄
I like the Pride and Prejudice Mitchell and Webb sketch even more :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWbqqPV1-pE&ab_channel=BBC
Yes, I think it goes back to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other jurists believing the Puritan US wouldn’t want to talk about “sex”.
Finally someone else who realizes the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets a bit irritated by people saying ‘gender’ when they mean ‘sex’, so I wanted to thank you for making me feel that I'm not alone in that respect! I don't know why people no
seem to be afraid of the word ‘sex’, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's something repressed and/or puritanical behind it. I have no objection to the use of ‘gender’ to describe a person's psychological sexual identification, indeed, for that purpose I find it useful. As you are no doubt aware, strictly speaking gender is a grammatical term referring to the sex of a word, eg actor/actress. Incidentally, I was born in (West) Berlin and in German all nouns for professions are gendered, eg Arzt/Ärztin for male/female doctor, so the use of ‘actress’ rather than ‘actor’ is just natural for me and doesn't involve and is certainly not intended to ascribe any value judgements, ie that one is in any way lesser than the other. However, I understand that some people do view an ‘actress’ as inferior to an ‘actor’ and as such I respect the wishes of female actors who would prefer to be referred to as an actor, rather than an actress. Perhaps it's because we don't have so many gendered nouns, apart from those that have -wo/man, eg police officers? I'll leave it at that, before I get carried away and start rambling.
Anyway, thank you again, and also for your interesting pontifications in general.
Nick (Pretzel)
I am increasingly irritated by this generation’s insistence that they are the first to have discovered both sex and the LGBTQ community. To add just two items to your list: ‘Tales from the City‘ and ‘Brideshead Revisited’ just two texts which predate the millennium and appear to have discovered same sex attraction... 🙄