Sorry, Liberals, But Gender Is Not a “Social Construct”

Townhall.com ^ | May 17, 2016 | John Hawkins

[OldMissileer]

It all started by changing a term denoting physical traits; i.e., sex, with a grammatical term, denoting linguistic differences; i.e., gender. One of the best illustrations of deconstructionism available.

I am not an English major but I know the difference between the words "sex" and "gender."

I really get perturbed when I see the term "gender" used when the correct word should be "sex."

Using the word "sex" now seems to be exclusively for the act of procreation and is almost taboo. I get tired of filling out forms that ask me my gender rather than my sex.

[Jim Noble]

“Gender” actually IS a social construct.

NOUNS have genders. People have sexes. Two of them, to be exact.

[ripley]

“Gender is a social construct, sex is not.”

Whaaaat?????

Just asking.

[exDemMom]

Gender is a biological reality.

If you really want to believe that it is a social construct, just look at animals. Animals do not have social constructs, yet they have very clear male behaviors and female behaviors.

I have been watching the geese from my window at work. They all look alike, but there is one goose showing a bunch of tiny fuzzy geese how to forage in the grass, while another goose never eats, but stands with head up, watching for danger. The adult geese look identical, but if I had to guess, I would say that the teacher is the mamma, and the guard is the poppa.

If gender were purely a social construct, you would see no difference in behavior between male and female animals.

[x]

Bruce Jenner would agree whole-heartedly that men are different from women. People like him feel gender differences a lot more strongly than other people. They just think that their birth biology puts them in the wrong category. I’m not saying Jenner’s right about any of that, just questioning whether the writer’s argument really follows from his premises.

[Svartalfiar]

Gender refers to Spanish nouns. It has nothing to do with humans.

Actually, gender is involved in most languages, not just Spanish. English is one of the few exceptions where all nouns are considered neuter. It's odd, because in English the only time a noun's gender is male or female is when the sex of the object the noun refers to is male or female. Otherwise, English uses the neuter, or masculine for unknown.