Terminology question

[purpletigron]

I hope this question is OK - please delete if not.

My question is about the usage of the terms 'sex' and 'gender'.

I find it useful to distinguish between sex - as biological genotype or phenotype - and gender - as social construct (and grammatical!) etc.

May I ask about how other readers define these terms?

Comments

[floit63]

It was all very light handed. Starting in kindergarten we were taught that all people are different and that's ok. I shared a birthday with 4 of my neighbours (long story) and when we turned six all of us received a different Barbie doll. Asian, African-American, "standard" Barbie, Latina, and one in a wheel chair (that one had to be customised). Now, all four of the other kids were boys (and still are as far as I know) so that alone tells you what my childhood was like.

Bullying of ANY sort was not allowed. There was a "first punch" rule where you were allowed to defend yourself as long as the other person began the fight, but that was as close as we got. Every incidence was looked into, all physical bullying was reported to the police (who did not hesitate to give assault charges), and punishments were handed out liberally.

Teachers also encouraged debate. REAL debate, not the shouting matches you often get in school classrooms. If there was something the class disagreed on we would take a day to present sides. Anyone who wanted could present and then the other students were given time to ask questions. Sometimes we'd come to a compromise, other times we'd agree to disagree.

I don't know that any one thing lead to the environment, really it was more a combination of different beliefs about how children should be raised. We were treated like adults with valid opinions and then expected to behave accordingly. If we didn't we were punished and told why our behaviour was unacceptable. By 8th or 9th grade it had all seeped in to the point where acceptance of people and other views (even if we disagree) was the default.