SEX AND GENDER

An understanding of the difference between sex and gender is critical to the use of bias-free language.

Sex is biological; gender is cultural: our notions of “masculine” tell us how we expect men to behave and our notions of “feminine” tell us how we expect women to behave. Words like womanly/manly, tomboy/sissy, unfeminine/unmasculine have nothing to do with the person’s sex; they are culturally acquired, subjective concepts about character traits and expected behaviors that vary from one place to another, from one individual to another.

Gender describes an individual’s personal, legal, and social status without reference to genetic sex; gender is a subjective cultural attitude. Sex is an objective biological fact. Gender varies according to the culture. Sex is a constant.

The difference between sex and gender is important because much sexist language arises from cultural determinations of what a woman or man “ought” to be. Once a society decides, for example, that to be a man means to hide ones emotions, bring home a paycheck, and be able to discuss football standings while to be a woman means to be soft-spoken, love shopping, babies, and recipes; much of the population becomes a contradiction in terms – unmanly men and unwomanly women. Crying, nagging, gossiping, and shrieking are assumed to be women’s lot; rough-housing, drinking beer, telling dirty jokes, and being unable to find ones socks and keys are laid at men’s collective door. Lists of srereotypes appear silly because very few people fit them. The best way to ensure biased writing and speaking is to describe people as individuals, not as members of a set.

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GENERIC/PSEUDOGENERIC	\|	GENDER ROLE WORDS

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