Pet Peeve #22 - Sex vs Gender
This is actually something I didn’t learn/didn’t pay attention to until my Women’s Studies course in college, but the lesson made enough of an impression to truly stick with me.
In my opinion, if you talk/type like a goon elsewhere, I’m not at all likely to read your work. That’s why I stray into mentioning pet peeves in what I hear and/or see in debates, speeches, etc instead of what I only see people doing in their writing.
I’ll forgive you if you say something wrong occasionally because we have our own weird accents. (If you type like you speak and type “gonna” instead of “going to” then we have something to talk about.) But it grinds my nerves when people use words when they don’t know the meanings and other things like that.
For the Princess Bride fans out there, remember this?
“Inconceivable!”
“I do not think that means what you think that means.”
So in comes sex versus gender. People tend to interchange these two words as if they mean the exact same things. I’ve even seen it done (repeatedly) in sex and/versus gender debates. So here it is in simple terms, and it’s easy to remember. At least, the sex bit is.
Sex is biological. His sex is male because he has balls, a penis, and a good lot of testosterone.
Gender is society’s way of fitting you in a box. She cooks and cleans because those are her stereotypical gender roles.
Your sex is decided by your parts and your chromosomes.
Gender is a social construct.
He can cook and clean just as well as she can because gender roles aren’t rules. She, however, can’t magically grow a penis and change her sex.
Have I made it clear now?
So the next time you tell your partner they do this or that because s/he is the wo/man, you’d better be talking about menstruation or getting a hard-on, not the dishes.
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:33 am
Lol, awesome way to explain a Pet Peeve XD. I can’t think of anyone not getting the idea… ;).
W.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:28 am
Second you on that:)!
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:22 am
Right.
People shouldn’t have to look between their legs to decide if they can make dinner.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I can’t make dinner…
May 27th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Haha. I’m glad you all liked it.
Richard, if I can learn, so can you.