Reflecting on the recent changes in language

[Ingenieur]

I stumbled across a hard copy of a dictionary from the early 90s recently and thought I'd take the opportunity to reflect on quite how recent a lot of the changes are in the discourse surrounding sex and feminism.

My hope is that this will serve as something of a record of what was understood to be the meaning of words in the living adult memory of most of those who use this board, as recently as 30 years ago.

Dictionaries of course aren't necessarily definitive, they record current and historic usage, but they are referenced when laws are drafted and determined in courts so having an appreciation of what was meant when laws were written is useful. Also, it is a snapshot of language at a given time so one can track when new usage appears.

It is clear from the screenshots that woman/ man, female/ male until this point had only sex-based meanings. Gender too had none of the social and cultural meanings we ascribe to it today - it was a grammatical term, or a reference to one's sex in the last entry.

Interestingly, in the entry for "sex change" it accurately refers to it as an "apparent change of sex", which of course it is.

Anyway, feel free to peruse the definitions, see which ones are listed as "archaic" and which ones deserve to be, and let's wonder at how such stable definitions because mangled in a single generation.

Sex:

Gender:

Woman:

Man:

Female:

Male:

Feminine:

Transsexual:

And to supplement the other definitions, Hermaphrodite:

Bump

It is clear from the screenshots that woman/ man, female/ male until this point had only sex-based meanings. Gender too had none of the social and cultural meanings we ascribe to it today - it was a grammatical term, or a reference to one's sex in the last entry

Yes gender to mean stereotypes or essence of femineity or whatever is a pretty new use. I understand why people like to snippily "correct" gender scan to sex scan (or whatever) but actually gender as a polite term for sex has been around for ages whereas gender to mean "whether or not I like pink" is really recent.

This reminds me of Winston treasuring old books in 1984!

@Butterworths

Yes, certainly. I first became aware of the distinction at University in the late 90s early 00s, from feminist criticism.

Then I understood gender, as far as academic discourse went, to mean all of the expectations and stereotypes that arise because of one's sex during interaction with broader society. The intent being to separate the things that are inately female, from the societally-constructed ones in order to criticise them.

I wasn't at the time aware of the queer theory/ postmodern definition of gender that has since taken root.

Thanks for sharing these, I find language and its evolution really interesting. There must have been a point with ‘gender’ when the use and meaning started to change, to where we are now. Like the use of ‘gay’ expanded and it’s rarely used now to mean jolly or similar. It puts my back up now though if I’m asked about my gender, the way things are today, as the conflation no longer works like it seemed to years ago.

gender as a polite term for sex has been around for ages

Not really ages. It started arising mid 20th century, and is something of an Americanism.

Might have been used earlier poetically or comically, but not as a valid formal synonym or euphemism.

Even in that 90s dictionary it's only there as "colloquial".

It is very interesting to see how the idea of gender went from 'synonym for sex for Americans people that don't want to use the word sex' to 'social expectations and stereotypes based on sex' to 'social expectations and stereotypes based on sex' + 'omg I think I'm cat gender because I like sleeping a lot'

@Skyellaskerry

As far as I can tell, gender was used as a literary flourish to mean sex for a couple of hundred years, but really took off as a genuine polite replacement for sex around 1900, when sex began to take on a secondary meaning of "sexual intercourse".

Gender as a social construct began in the 50s (in feminism with Simone de Beauvoir, and in queer theory with John Money) and those meaning developed in parallel but only in an academic sense, never really in general conversation until the proliferation of gender studies graduates in the early 2010s.

What really kicked off the change in public consciousness was Stonewall moving from a gay rights charity to a queer one in the mid 2010s, which was around the time man and woman began to take on a socially constructed meaning they'd never had before, soon followed by male and female, then TWAW etc.

So only really in the last decade and a half.

By the way, for reference, the dictionary these definitions were taken from is the 7th ed. Concise Oxford Dictionary. According to Wikipedia it is the reference dictionary for the UN

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concise_Oxford_English_Dictionary

@NecessaryScene

Even in that 90s dictionary it's only there as "colloquial"

Yes, an important point, good spot.

People have forgotten (or are too young to remember) when 'gender' was a more polite substitute for 'sex'. Official forms would ask for your gender. And there were only two options: M or F. When I've said that on SM, I've often been taken to task, called a liar, etc. But it's true.

I should add, the 90s counts for me as 'recent'! 😃

It’s easy to see then why gender is still used as a so called polite word for sex, 2010 still recent in language evolution terms. Like I’ve been asked the gender of my dog in forms! I honestly think I would have carried on oblivious if I hadnt had my eyes opened.

Gender was never a "polite" substitute for the word sex.

I dont know where anyone gets this idea from.

The UK was able to have and pass a Sex Discrimination Act and no one taking part in the campaign, drafting the text or debating in the HoC had a fainting fit about using the word sex.

The best way of trying to find when it changed is to look back through news reports.

And it clearly shows that it started when the students educated post the queer take over of women's studies became gender studies, started to work in the media. And later this use of word gender when it should be sex, was part of the political strategy of TRAs.

Gender was never a "polite" substitute for the word sex.

It was in America. Use of "gender" for sex in formal situations there has been common for decades.

But I agree with you that it really wasn't common in the UK. It was formally incorrect enough to be the sort of thing grammar pedants would call you out on until quite recently. (And now it's Mumsnet pedants). I'm sure it happened sometimes, like any sort of grammar error (or hypercorrection), but the more official the document, the less likely it would be.

(I can certainly imagine Hyacinth Bucket probably used it...)

Gender was never a "polite" substitute for the word sex

I must have imagined my childhood, then.

I recall "Gender" being used instead of "Sex" to stop schoolboys writing "Yes, please." on forms. Polite in that sense.

Sex. Giggle, giggle, giggle.

Snort.