I have a good friend who lays claim to having coined the usage of 'gender' rather than sex in this type of terminology. She is a feminist psychologist (field being the psychology of women) and needed a term for some of her papers and texts. This gives us something to argue over. Half a century ago, we were both taught that sex refers to the male vs female of a species and that gender is a gramatical term. After a few drinks, she will often agree with me, but still be proud of having added something to English usage.
Larry > > Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 08:26:22 -0400 > From: "Steve Desjardins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: PDML numbers: Re: I haven't got *Ist D > Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Content-Disposition: inline > > I've been told by some of my social scientist friends that the correct > term is "sex", i.e., the answer to "are you amle or female?". Evidently > sex is a pure physical discitnction whereas gender refers to the > psychological, behavioral, or cutltural traits associated with the > sexes, so that then latter is a continuous and not a binary variable. > At least this was the answer I got when I suggested we use the word > "gender" on a survey. If memory serves, I made some sophomoric joke as > a reply. ;-) > > > Steven Desjardins > Department of Chemistry > Washington and Lee University > Lexington, VA 24450 > (540) 458-8873 > FAX: (540) 458-8878 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/02/03 11:11PM >>> > You're taking all of the sophomoric fun out of this list. > > At 10:21 PM 9/30/03 -0500, you wrote: > >Its better to use the word "gender" if your trying to avoid the > juvenile > >responses to the "sex" question I have found. > > > > > > > >Simon King wrote: > >>I'd be interested in seeing what the breakdown of the PDML is by, > say; > >>Sex, age, country, annual income, special interests etc. > >>Might throw up some surprises or challenge some assumptions. > >>Cheers, > >>Simon > >> > >> > >>PS - if anyone makes a joke about the "sex" question it'll just > prove how > >>many schoolboys are on the list. > >> > >>-----Original Message----- > >>From: William Robb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 30 > >>September 2003 8:00 AM > >>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >>Subject: PDML numbers: Re: I haven't got *Ist D > >> > >>----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Desjardins" Subject: Re: I > > >>haven't got *Ist D > >> > >> > >>>Wow. I would have thought it was smaller. Hard to believe that > many > >>>folks think all of this is intersting ;-) > >> > >>Thats out of how many billions of people on this ball of dirt? > >><smiley> > >>William Robb > >></smiley> > >> > > > > I drink to make other people interesting. > -- George Jean Nathan > > ------------------------------
