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?

Sex is what posh people get their coal in.

Never heard any one talk of a gender scan or TBH a sex scan.

People just say they are going for a scan - often the date of scan so 12 week scan or 20 week may or extra scan or another scan or a scan for .... It's how the hospitals talk about it as well IME even in letters.

Assume her clinic wanted to sound I don't know more medical -posh which doesn't work really.

we were always taught that gender is between your ears, and sex is between your legs

FredFredGeorge - did you mean to be so arrogant and rude?

RP - lots of people don't know the difference. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to spend your energy explaining it to people (and why it's important) than getting angry about it?

I can bet there are things that you say that are just as incorrect and I bet there are things you don't know that others are suprised at... stones & glass houses.

Oh you are NOT BU - I have to try to teach the difference to 16 - 19 year olds and then look at how gender is percieved in different cultures.

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)
That's quite worrying

Can we add my own personal hates

"very unique" - no it is either unique or it isn't
and the use of "myself" - I know that was another thred recently.

YANBU.

It annoys me too. I think "gender" gets used in school things to stop the sniggering over the hilarious word "sex" but it still annoys me.

so what is the difference between transexual and transgender?

Google/Wiki told me this...
The word gender "has three common applications in contemporary English.
Most commonly, it is applied to the general differences between male and female entities, without any overt assumptions regarding biology or sociology.
Sometimes, however, the usage is technical or overtly assumes a particular theory of human nature, which is usually made clear from the context.
Finally, gender is also commonly applied to the independent concept of distinctive word categories in certain languages. Grammatical gender has little or nothing to do with differences between female and male."

YABU

Stranded

Please can we have a new acronym - YABIPYC - 'you are being incredibly pedantic yet correct'?

merci she was going to a private clinic for a 30week scan and they offered her the option of a 'gender scan'!

Class that is a brilliant way to describe it - I am seriously going to nick that for my students' benefit!

Chipping - I don't actually get angry and tell people off I do have some social skills. Except when marking work - then anything goes.......

Meh - the one is predictive enough of the other to be used interchageably.

YANBU
It is annoying
The two things are very different
The general confusion of sex with gender and vice versa makes it very difficult to discuss issues raised by things like MN let girls be girls and so on
If sex is gender and gender is sex then organisations like pink stinks have no reason to exist, it is set. Girls are like "this" and boys are like "that" and it is immutable as gender is sex and sex is gender.

Well I didn't know that and am glad someone has explained the difference.

Not that I think I'll need the info very often, but I like knowing new things and am also a bit of a pedant, although clearly not a very well-informed one!

So, er, I can't admit to having had fantastic gender last night?

When I was at school it was only nouns that had gender. People just had sex.

YANBU, and you are right that it's come about because the word 'sex' is considered way too tittersome to be used. Medical professsionals really ought to get this one right, and everyone I've seen in my pregnancy has done so. Is it a private clinic thing perhaps?

it's because they don't want to say the word 'sex'

Tiggy

I'd rather people know the difference between

their and there and they're
should of and should have
your and you're
Honesty and rudeness
Class and manners
Strong will and bull-headedness
Self reliance and selfishness and
Arrogance and self confidence

before I start to give the tiniest of shits about gender and sex.

I think if people had that down, the whole gender/sex thing wouldn't even need to be discussed because everybody would be decent to everyone else.