What's your gender?

[Redshirt]

I sense that we have a more balanced male to female ratio here (notwithstanding the staff proportion). I just wanted to confirm this.

[Brianna]

:D you forgot the third " i don't care" option :D

[Coleslaw]

When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female? The Victorians used the word "sex" in that context; why are we so prissy about it?

[Brianna]

When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female? The Victorians used the word "sex" in that context; why are we so prissy about it?

He'd probably get a bunch of yes or no answers then :D

[Ronin]

When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female? The Victorians used the word "sex" in that context; why are we so prissy about it?

'Cause it rhymes with "bender", duh.

:cool:

[DMB]

When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female? The Victorians used the word "sex" in that context; why are we so prissy about it?

Because usage has changed since the 19th century. The Victorians did not use "sex" on its own to mean "fucking". We do, and that's why people are not so keen on using it to mean M/F any more.

On this subject, in Victorian times "making love" to someone meant chatting them up. Now most people use it to mean "fucking" (for which there are quite enough synonyms already IMO). I think there's a sort of Gresham's Law for this: original meanings get driven out by references to copulation, genitalia and excretory functions.

[Coleslaw]

Why do people keep answering my "when" question with "why" answers? Oh, wait, I see I also did throw in a "why" question as a more or less rhetorical flourish. Serves me right. Let's try again: When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female?

[DMB]

I first became aware of it in the 1970s.

[Master Taran]

Let's try again: When did people start using the word "gender" instead of "sex" to ask if you are male or female?Because of people like me that used to put the answer of "YES" in the box asking about sex. :evil:

[Alethias]

:D you forgot the third " i don't care" option :Dor both(hermaphrodite)
or neutral(androgynous)
or male-in-a-female-body
or female-in-a-male-body

and then there is the men that are decidedly male and happily so, but are oriented towards having sex with men. Versus men that feel no sexual response at all when around other men. And the same poles with women.

Gender is an interesting word. Sometimes it pretty much is used to mean "what equipment were ya borne with, male or female", and sometimes it carries with it all sorts of other societal and biochemical connotations.

[Goldie]

I am woman, hear me roar?

[Master Taran]

I am woman, hear me roar?
Goldie. :D (http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/theremoteisland/2009/01/mighty-mouse.jpg)

[purple_kathryn]

When I was younger saying "I went out with him" in certain situations (ie in a night club) meant anything from a snog and perhaps a grope to full blown sex. Although it still meant dating as well.

[darjeeling]

Gender is an interesting word. Sometimes it pretty much is used to mean "what equipment were ya borne with, male or female", and sometimes it carries with it all sorts of other societal and biochemical connotations.

Where I'm from, sex is biological, and gender is a social construct, so you can have a person whose sex is male but whose gender is female, for instance.

Apparently the WHO (http://www.who.int/topics/gender/en/) uses a similar definition. Interesting.

[Berthold]

Male.

When I went to high school (in the 1960s), gender was still a term of grammar.

[Preno]

Where's Raza?

[Notta]

Where's Raza?What do you want to do with him?

[Goldie]

I am woman, hear me roar?
Goldie. :D (http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/theremoteisland/2009/01/mighty-mouse.jpg)

HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!
Mini Might!

[Tangiellis]

Female. Although I've been told by men that I'm too much like a guy with my attitudes at times.

[purple_kathryn]

See I the whole "OMG you're not acting the way I stereotypically expect a man/woman to behave so therefore I will judge you badly" attitude is just bullshit.

[Tangiellis]

lol...I know. Some guys like that I know comic books and dig action films or that I'm intellectual. Others get put out because I can assemble the furniture and haul it faster than them or don't need their input to make an informed decisions about anything. It takes all types.:rolleyes:

[BWE]

Where's Raza?What do you want to do with him?

The gender question gets a little muddy around there. :)

[Coleslaw]

Female. Although I've been told by men that I'm too much like a guy with my attitudes at times.

I'd reply to any man who said you are "too much like a guy" that you always think of yourself as more feminine than any man in the room, but if he has a different opinion, you're not going to argue with him.

[Kali]

I am a male and i liek femalz