to think people should know the difference between sex and gender?

[RevoltingPeasant]

Possibly total pedantry but this really hacks me off.

My colleague is pg and going for - according to her clinic - a 'gender scan'. NO! You cannot see the gender of an unborn child. In fact you cannot see anybody's gender on a medical scan.

I find it annoying that medical personnel don't know to use the biological term 'sex' correctly, but equally on MN, or IRL when forms say, 'What gender?' and then give male and female as alternatives.

Grrr! Gender is a cultural construction. Sex is biological. Gender is masculine or feminine, sex male/ female.

AIBU?

you are right, but YABU to get wound up about it :)

Really?

I don't know if you ABU tbh.

I always thought gender and sex meant the same thing..

Why does it matter?

RevoltingPedant, I think!
No, YANBU - pedantry is good! I didn't actually know that it's incorrect to say "gender scan". This malapropism may have arisen because people are squeamish about the word "sex".

You are correct, but getting upset over this aspect of it is really self indulgent and tbh, you come across quite silly and yes, pedantic.

The energy you're wasting getting upset about this could be spent on getting upset and angry about so many other, more pressing, injustices.

I suppose it matters if you want medical professionals to use medically accurate terms.

What they are looking for here is the biological sex (male, female or occasionally hermaphrodite).

Gender is a different matter, relating to how people identify to a sex (for the majority, this will match their biological sex), and also how society forms roles and expectations based on sex, even when there is no biological reason so to do.

at RevoltingPedant - might NC, ta.

Methe they don't though, and I think it matters as it obscures the fact that whilst sex is (arguably) a biological given, gender is a more or less arbitrary thing imposed by social norms.

It is also quite annoying that HCPs apparently see the word 'sex' as somehow 'rude' ffs.

and niz seriously, it's a rant thread, I'm not actually tearing my hair out over it and I don't think it's more important than starving children in developing nations.

YABU. For a long time they were used interchangably and not everyone is aware of the issue.

It matters because gender is self assigned, sex is not.

If you are transgender you could be biologically fully male, live as a female and classify your gender as feminine.

Oops posted on wrong thread. Sorry!

Agree with madhouse. In fact I think the difference incredibly important, though I have to admit I couldnt care less if people talk about 'gender scans'!

I wouldn't use it to mean masculine for feminine as to me they are different things altogether (you can be a masculine woman or feminine man) but I would use it when talking about sexuality and transgender. Sexuality is very tied in with gender and who you are but is separate from your sex.

People who say empty things like 'be a man' or 'he isnt a woman cos he wasnt born one' dont understand this difference.

Meh

Couldn't give a stuff

Nizlopi, if you applied that logic to every AIBU thread, there would be no AIBU threads!!! Seriously, surely we're all allowed a rant/moan about things, either in RL or MN without somebody coming along saying "ooh, but what about the young girls suffering genital mutilation, that's far worse" .

Calm down RP.I'm a mum,grandma,trained nurse and midwife and have no idea of what you're on about.Also if I did,ie.Googling,I could not give a stuff.(I did Google by the way)

Yes! My dad taught me the difference back when was a teen writing essays etc no doubt. Its stuck with me and I'm amazed how often the words are mixed up in the correct context etc.

YANBU

Not that I give a shit to be honest, just incredibly smug that I know the difference

It's neither
It's an anomoly scan
So there (sticks tongue out n scarpers)

It's neither
It's an anomoly scan
So there (sticks tongue out n scarpers)

You are so NBU. This is one of those usages that drives me insane, particularly as it's now all over the place - the BBC, the Guardian, and just about everyone else. Even official forms used to say "Sex". Now they say "Gender". Though that's possibly because people used to write "yes, please".

You are right about the difference and that it matters, especially to people whose sex and gender are different but, I know that lots of people don't know and use them interchangeably. I'd like them to get it right as it sounds really odd to me - gender scan equalling mind reading - but you may be U to expect most people to understand. Maybe you need to explain to them.

YANBU and I completely agree. People can be one sex and another gender - as trivial and piffling a detail as it is it matters. It might not matter to you or me whose gender and sex are the same, but for someone whose doesn't? Yeah it matters.

The difference is important - but if they're dumb enough to say you're going for a gender scan, I'm not sure they'd understand anyway.

YANBU at all! Most irritating.