To think that sex and gender are the same thing?

[StNinian]

I don't buy into the distinction many people make between the two terms nowadays. "Gender" was never a word used to describe how one feels/identifies behaves until recently. It has long been synonymous with "sex". Just curious to see if anyone else agrees with me.

Gender has always been a different thing to sex so YABU. I learned that distinction in the 1990s in A level sociology.

Sex is whether you're male or female
Gender is personality from what I can tell

Sex is biologically real
gender is a social construct

they are not the same and the difference is salient

I don't think they've always been the same no.
It's only recently you even really hear the word gender.
Before everything used to sex. No one really mentioned gender (because they didn't need to)

It's always been different. Until very recently only feminists really noticed or cared. But that doesn't mean it's not true.

I used to think that, OP. Four years ago I would have agreed with you entirely.

Unfortunately, it has become crystal clear that they are not the same. 'Gender' is not a synonym for 'sex', although I appreciate that some do still use it in that way.

I was taught that gender was a social construct 25yrs ago (a levels).

Sex is biology. Gender is how the patriarchy systematically oppresses those whose sex is female.

They’ve never been the same but more people probably used them interchangeably prior to the last few years. I always used gender instead of sex when I was a child because I thought sex was a bad word.

Sex is male or female.

Gender is how (patriarchal) society expects males or females to behave.

This is an excellent question to uncover the wokists...!

Webster's Dictionary 1828 2. A sex, male or female.

The Oxford Etymological Dictionary of the English Language of 1882 : Kind, breed, sex

I think that you're correct that historically they were interchangeable, but gender came to mean a social construct in the mid-twentieth century. According to Wikipedia anyway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender

But I also agree that lots of people outside of academia have used the terms interchangeably until very recently

People say "gender" because they think it sounds more polite than "sex".

Sex is legally defined and is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. "Gender" (on it's own) is not legally defined and it means different things to different people. For some people it's a polite way of saying sex. For others it means the belief that everyone has an innate gender identity.

How can they be the same thing when people can apparently have a male body but a female gender? They are two opposing things.

Sex is biology, gender is sexist bollocks that we’d all be better off without.

Precisely this. And interesting to see how language affects how other nationalities approach this.

Sex = male/female.
Gender = masculine/feminine.

Male/female is universal.
Masculine/feminine changes over time/place/culture.

Not true at all. Sex is biology. Gender is the cultural constructs. Basic sociology

Kathleen Stock talks about the different meanings of gender in Material Girls.

Which is the 'right' answer, according to you?

I prefer the "old-fashioned" way of using them interchangeably, and I don't think there's much gained by separating the meanings. People who are overly interested in defining gender tend to have too much time on their hands, imo. It's navel-gazing introspection that ends up with as many "genders" as there are sentient beings in the world!

Sex and gender are not the same thing,
Sex is immutable, gender is a social construct and can change,
I find it very annoying when the word 'gender' is used, when 'sex' should be,

https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1

Define recently. Gender was definitely a thing when I was at school.