To: Lindykim
Actually, I am most disturbed that the author is employing the current use of the word "gender" when the appropriate word is "sex." There are but two sexes: male and female. "Gender" should be reserved for language use (e.g. French, where La is feminine gender, Le is masculine gender)
As H.W. Fowler wrote in his "Modern English Usage":
"gender...is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons...of the masculine or feminine g[ender], meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder."
Even the Microsoft dictionary admits that other uses are non-standard.
4 posted on
02/07/2005 3:24:41 PM PST by
sittnick
(There's no salvation in politics.)
To: sittnick
As H.W. Fowler wrote in his "Modern English Usage":
"gender...is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons...of the masculine or feminine g[ender], meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder."
What edition would that have been? See
sex and
gender
OTOH, see
Humpty Dumpty. "When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to meannothing more and nothing less."
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