Gender vs. Sex

[jangab]

I would like to clarify the words "sex" and "gender". Sex is the biological thing... It is either you are born with a p***s or a v****a... Gender, on the other hand, is the the role you would want to play in the society...
So if people ask you "what is your gender?" that statement is incorrect...
You should say "what is your sex?"...
P.S.
Use male or female when dealing with sex and masculine and feminine when dealing with gender...
-JanGab  

[The MoUsY spell-checker]

Well, considering how sex is often a taboo topic, it's really not surprising that people use "gender" as a euphemism. Look, you even typed "p***s" and "v****a" with the asterisks yourself.

Appropriately enough (since this is a grammar guild), the word "gender" originally referred to grammatical gender, which corresponds to sex in many but not all languages.

For example, Latin and German have neuter in addition to masculine and feminine, and I've read somewhere that there's a language that classifies nouns according to whether they refer to something edible or not, although that might actually be a different type of noun classes that may or may not be considered "gender" depending on who you ask.  

[Tonberry Teh Haxxor]

I use gender, not sex, because people seem to cringe whenever someone says the word "sex".
Sex is not just a word used to define whether you are male or female, it is also used to say sexual intercourse, and that is very taboo.  

[Amphion]

Generally, the distinction is rather unimportant; people's gender identity almost always matches their biological sex. But the distinction is helpful when discussions of transgender issues arise.  

[Titan_of_Fire59]

According to my Gender in Global Perspective course (sociology of gender class):

Gender = a role that is taught through socialization.
Sex = labels of people based on biological traits; a distinction at birth.

I believe this to be true, though I could be wrong.  

[Anye5]

I don't think it matters. People tend to freak out about it because of how people use the word sex these days, but you will find it on all kinds of official forms and such instead of gender. We as a society have blurred the lines to the point where it almost doesn't ever matter. Just try not to be crude is my vote.  

[joannemily]

While I agree that gender is your role in society and sex is your biological distinction, I too use gender instead of sex because it makes people uncomfortable. Most people don't care which is correct from a grammatical viewpoint, only which one doesn't attract too much attention.  

[Amphion]

Titan_of_Fire59

According to my Gender in Global Perspective course (sociology of gender class):

Gender = a role that is taught through socialization.
Sex = labels of people based on biological traits; a distinction at birth.

I believe this to be true, though I could be wrong.

It's not clear that gender is entirely a social construct. While there are many baseless stereotypes about both genders, some are actually true. There are very good studies that show that very young children (less than one year of age) display gender-typical traits before they understand the concept of gender.  

[DarkElf27]

If you're asking a person their gender/sex, what does it really matter what their sex is? I know people whose gender and sex are different, and they usually prefer to be treated by their gender rather than their sex.  

[Titan_of_Fire59]

Amphion

Titan_of_Fire59

According to my Gender in Global Perspective course (sociology of gender class):

Gender = a role that is taught through socialization.
Sex = labels of people based on biological traits; a distinction at birth.

I believe this to be true, though I could be wrong.

It's not clear that gender is entirely a social construct. While there are many baseless stereotypes about both genders, some are actually true. There are very good studies that show that very young children (less than one year of age) display gender-typical traits before they understand the concept of gender.

Interesting...could you please PM me any links you may have to that? I am most curious about this subject now.  

[Yutaka Miko]

Oh I never knew it is defined like that!
I used to say "What is your gender?" instead of "What is your sex?" I know that sentence is correct, but the word "sex" is just not a good word to be used in my opinion. Like what Tonberry said earlier, people seem to give some 'reactions' whenever someone says "sex" even though they are not using it in terms of intercourse.