I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word “female”, is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?

I don’t know if this is the best place to ask, if it’s not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^

    • arin@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Can you explain the difference? Aren’t genders another way of saying their biological sex?

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        No. Gender is largely a social construct based on psychological, cultural, and behavioral mores, although given that there are differences in the brain between Trans and Cis people of the same biological sex, there does appear to be something of a biological component.

        Biological sex is tied entirely to the genome, and may or may not match a person’s gender.

      • PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Not OP, but please, any answer you get, including mine, research for yourself. Most will just push their own opinion as fact. Or pass off someone else’s opinion as fact.

        In many cultures around the world, these terms are interchangeable. In the US, they were (and for many/most, still are) the same thing until not too long ago. When people were doing gender reveal parties 20 years ago, no one was correcting them that’s it’s a “sex reveal not gender reveal”.

        The modern usage of “gender” didn’t exist until the 1950s, popularized by John Money, and if you want to research that deviant pervert, be my guest.

    • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      In any society where male roles and female roles differ (e.g. fathers play ball with their kids; mothers teach their kids to sew), male and female are also genders in addition to being sexes. What else would you call these genders?

      • kemsat@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Gender’s not something I care about (social roles given to sexes). Honestly, I think it’s a worthless convention & conversation.

        Sex is just what we call our roles in the creation of life. One sex carries the baby, the other causes the baby. This cannot be changed to the other. A female, regardless of their precious feelings & conscious identity, is the one that becomes pregnant. The male, even if he’s trans, is the one that causes the pregnancy.

        When I ask for someone’s sex, I couldn’t care less about how they feel or what pronouns they’d like to be called by. I’m literally not referring to their consciousness, just what type of meat robot that consciousness is in.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          9 months ago

          Your response demonstrates why you’re not qualified to have an opinion on what is or isn’t a gender.

          • kemsat@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m qualified to know gender ≠ sex. Your opinion demonstrates why you’re delusional.

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              9 months ago

              I was never disputing that, so I don’t see what what point you think you’re making.

              What is the gender of a cis boy?

              • kemsat@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                I guess the gender is “cis boy?” But I don’t care about gender. I’d consider gender a mental state. While sex is a physical state. Sex determines the part your body plays in biological sexual reproduction, under normal/usual/typical/common genetic circumstances. Aka you either get pregnant or you cause someone else to be pregnant.

                Again, why the fuck does gender matter beyond an individual’s mental state? It’s literally a different matter from sex. Hence why trans is even a thing at all.

      • kemsat@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        No. Sex is just about biology. Sex is just about which part you play in the creation of life: do you carry the offspring or not? If yes, you are female. Gender is some dumb shit we made up.