Trump announces executive order that says legally there are only 2 genders (hmmm did he mis-speak and meant sex?)

[IwantToRetire]

Well this will add to the confusion.

Have just heard him use the word gender, even though earlier news reports had said he would say only 2 sexes.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-sign-order-proclaiming-only-160700963.html

I'll take satisfaction from the intent even if the words show how effective the deliberate butchering of the language has been.

It is my understanding that in the US, it is still normal to use 'gender' as a polite way to refer to sex. I agree that this is confusing, however, if the wording of the order is sensible (such as the definitions) then it should be clear that it means there are two sexes and that people cannot change sex.

Oh, I think everyone knows exactly what he meant.

He means sex. Americans think it's more polite to say gender. I tend to assume he'll gravitate towards what most voters think is the common sense position.

On Reddit, they're panicking about LGBTQ folx being put in concentration camps. Meanwhile, at his rally last night, Trump was dancing with the Village People.

Well yes I hope they do, but dont want to give the gender advocates any wriggle room, let alone more endless discussion about do we mean biological fact or what someone thinks they are.

It won’t add any confusion - everyone knows what he means (and as PP say, that is what they use in the US but I am sure even in the Uk we can understand what he means).

I have heard that, and dont think it is that general any more that in the UK. The word gender in referring to people, only crept into public use post the queering of University education in the late 70s early 80. So many university students have been mis taught.

Although I have heard both US news announcers and commentators use the word sex.

I sort of thought given the issue, that in doing that they were being deliberately direct.

I just think it is such a shame (not that I want to use Trump as any sort of yardstick) not to have it implicit what it is about.

Gender is used a 'polite' word used instead of sex over here as well, it's not a US-specific thing.
People can say there are kerjillions of 'genders', whatever they are, it's the 'only two SEXES' that matters. If he used the word gender, the waters are still muddied.

Americans don’t use sex because they are quite prudish . UK online right wing commentators like Katie Hopkins use gender too so that their content can be watched by Americans who only use sex to mean the physical act.

It's not a US specific thing, but it is more common there.

There are only two genders in humans. Pretending otherwise, that there can be "male women" or "female men" or "non-binary" people, is part of what started the mess.

Gender and sex were interchangeable 15 years ago. He is dialing it back to that time.

BBC1 6pm news has just shown him saying, “There are (only) two genders: male and female.”

Not “men and women”. I think that’s clearer, is it?

Well he's right. If there are two sexes, and there is, then there are two genders.

exactly this !

Exactly - post the queering of University Education.

Prior to that, and you can look at old news paper, nobody would have used the word gender.

The use of the explanation of prudishness is not acknowledging just how sucessful the TRA agenda has been.

Anyway, none of that is the issue.

Court cases have focused on sex being sex, which is why gender identity is not equal to it.

Seems really sloppy speech writing, because the actual discussion in the public domain, and he himself has used the word sex, to then use the wrong word.

Maybe it will turn out that some undercover TRA got in as a volunteer, and was delegated to do the typing and changed it.

I dont have any worries, as Trump could bullshit his way out of just about anything.

But what a cock up. That's men for you!

No, if you go back to the 1950s, you can find gender used to mean socially constructed sex roles. This was used in psychiatry if I recall correctly.
Second wave feminism also used gender to mean socially constructed sex roles. So for example, the idea that woman are caring and nurturing because women are mothers. Second wave feminism used it as a way of critically analysing social hierarchies.
Then I think third wave feminism was all about performativity of gender which made it something people choose to do (this is where I get a little lost) and decoupled from biological sex, indeed, that there is no natural sex. Which then links to queer theory (which is where I get entirely lost). So I am not sure gender and sex were synonymous otherwise a lot of second wave feminist writing does not make sense.

Thanks for explaining it so well.

And in fact the campaigning to make the change was so overt.

ie within only a few years of Women's Studies being set up in universities there was a backlash because it was "sexist" and they all became gender studies.

ie to undermine the notion of women being a sex glass and it was only about gender stereotypes.

Just part of men denying that they are the sex class that oppresses the sex class of women.

He didn't say people couldn't swap between them though

That’s pretty specialised. If you look in old printed Webster dictionaries, it’s the same. Forms in the 70s, 80s and 90s asked one’s gender, and you could tick the male or female box.

Came here to post a thread about this. Who had 'being on the same side as Trump' on their 2025 bingo card..? 😳

nypost.com/2025/01/20/us-news/trump-executive-order-to-define-sex-as-male-and-female/

The only damn thing I agree with him on.🤐

Whatever law he enacts will be clear. It’s just his speech that’s a tad woolly.

To be honest I’m surprised he didn’t throw a few superlatives in the sentence. ‘The most womanly women! Men who are the mennest men anyone has ever seen!’

Without the superlatives, how do you even know it’s Trump speaking!?

It’s embarrassing, frankly.

I think it's perfectly obvious what he meant .