miércoles, 9 de abril de 2008

Gender: can we talk about it?


This time thanks go to Esteban, Julián and Huguillo who were brave enough to leave their comments in the blog. I make a point of that because I've heard many who say they don't write "well enough to write in a blog". C'mon! Put your fears aside... here you have another chance.

OK. Gender is this entry's focus. Let's first clarify what it means:



  • A grammatical category used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.

  • Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture.

  • ORIGIN: [Middle English gendre, from Old French, kind, gender, from Latin genus, gener-; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

  • Usage Note: Traditionally, gender has been used primarily to refer to the grammatical categories of "masculine," "feminine," and "neuter," but in recent years the word has become well established in its use to refer to sex-based categories, as in phrases such as gender gap and the politics of gender. This usage is supported by the practice of many anthropologists, who reserve sex for reference to biological categories, while using gender to refer to social or cultural categories.
So, I'd like you to think about it and post your opinions, and react to other people's comments as well. That is, I'd appreciate it if you can interact by replying to other blogger's opinions on this topic. Feel free to sign your interventions with an invented nickname. The point here is to discuss ideas, regardless of individual differences.
OK, hope to get you thinking!
Peace

Enzo

1 comentario:

Anónimo dijo...

Well, I think people are hard to define. And nowadays it seams to be even a harder task using such an arguable "grammatical categoty".
Human beings are very complex, so, I agree with the last meaning, because it refers to "gender" not just as a common noun, but as a complex concept related to social, cultural and sex-based categories.
ROSI