"Sex" & "Gender"

I have been pre-occupied with this for many years. I remember the first time was when I was in Vegas many years go for training. After the week-long training we were given the opportunity to provide feedback and of course give them personal demographics about ourselves so they would know where we are coming from.

Among the information was the question on my "Sex." Being ecstatic the training in hot Vegas was over with, I wrote in front of it "I have been married for fifteen years...are you kidding me or what!"

Many things in our world have been modernized. Thousands of new words have been invented or upgraded and added to practically every popular English language dictionary. But, the use of word "sex" to refer to a gender remains as old as it was.

Sex has come to mean a lot more than physiology. Sex is an act, a habit, a desire, a mental trap, a way to make money, spend money, and a virtue by which commercial industry sells products.

The other thing that bothers me is the "Male/Females" words used to describe objects. Anything that has a protruding part is called "male" and anything that protruding part can penetrate into is called "female." In Farsi which is my mother language we don't have these things. For plugs at the end of a wire if it is two pronged it is called "twin horned" and if it has a grounding prong it is called "triple horned." The outlet, the female part is called "priz" and I don't know if that is adopted from French or other languages.

Using male and female to describe the role objects play is not limited to plugs and outlets in English language. Virtually everything that can penetrate into something (that it belongs to) is called a male part and that in which it is meant to penetrate is called female.


In Farsi, gender is referred to as "kind," and then the answer is "man" or "woman" not male or female.

Do you think the time has come to revolutionize application forms, personal profiles on the Internet and so on and change the reference to gender from "sex" to "gender"? Or do you think the time has come for us to teach our children that what is protruding is just protruding and it has nothing to do with male and female physiology?

I think the time has come. If you are passing through I hope that you will share your thoughts.