Gender

In a variety of different contexts, gender refers to the masculinity or femininity of words, persons, organisms, or characteristics. The classification into masculine and feminine is analogous to the biological sex of the referent, often by physical or syntactical analogy, linguistic decay, misunderstandings, societal norms, or personal choice. The nature of this categorisation varies depending on the context. For example, gender can be used to refer to the differences in biological sex between two members of a species, or different characteristics of electrical connectors. On the other side, in feminist theory, gender is used to refer solely to socially constructed differences between male and female behaviour, and the gender of a noun in many languages may have nothing to do with the concept described by it.

Etymology and usage

Gender comes from Middle English gendre, ultimately from latin genus, all meaning "kind", "sort", or "type". It appears in Modern French in the word genre (type, kind) and is related to the Greek root gen- (to produce), appearing in genesis and oxygen.

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As a verb, it is used for to breed in the King James Bible:

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:Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind. ? Leviticus, 19:19

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According to Aristotle, the Greek philospher Protagoras used the terms masculine, feminine, and neuter to classify nouns, introducing the concept of grammatical gender.

Related Topics:
Aristotle - Protagoras

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Since the 14th century, the word is also used as a synonym for (biological) sex. Examples:

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:The Psyche, or soul, of Tiresias is of the masculine gender ? Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia

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:I may add the gender too of the person I am to govern ? Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey

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:Black divinities of the feminine gender ? Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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:Our most lively impression is that the sun is there assumed to be of the feminine gender ? Henry James, Essays on Literature

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By 1900, this usage was considered jocular by some.

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In 1926, Fowler's Modern English Usage suggested that ?gender...is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons...of the masculine or feminine g, meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder.?

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From Maven's Word of the Day:

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:Despite such pronouncements, which may be found in similar forms in many usage books, the use of gender to refer to sex has been increasingly common in the last several decades. This use of gender is comparably common, if not more common, than the equivalent use of sex. A few examples from this year: "The state has to justify any discrimination based on race, gender, national origin " (New Republic); "No residential college at Yale prohibits visits by either gender" (New York Times Magazine); "Can clever readers really tell a writer's gender from his or her prose?" (Harper's). The growth of this usage, sometimes blamed on "feminists," is probably a result of the increased frequency of the word sex in the sense of sexual intercourse; gender is employed to avoid the potential physical connotations of sex.

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In some parts of the social sciences, following a usage shift that began in the 1950s and was largely completed in the 1980s, gender has been used increasingly to refer to socially constructed aspects, in contrast to biologically determined, using the word sex for the latter. Example (again from MWofD) ?Today a return to separate single-sex schools may hasten the revival of separate gender roles?. Another example: ?The effectiveness of the medication appears to depend on the sex (not gender) of the patient?, but ?In peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles are likely to be more clearly defined.? This distinction has been advocated vociferously by some, who consider the use of gender as a euphemism for sex incorrect.

Related Topics:
1950 - 1980

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In the last half of the 20th century, the use of gender in academia has increased strongly, now outnumbering the occurrences of the word sex in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. However, use of the term gender includes the meaning biological sex, and the distinction between sex and gender is only fitfully observed. (Haig, 2004)

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