Why is the word “gender” used constantly today rather than the word “sex”? Are there any benefits to the term “gender” that are not included with the term sex to refer to male and female? Should Christians use the word gender when referring to the male or female sex?
The word gender though perhaps technically synonymous with sex or binary kind has been increasingly dominated by feminist activists around the 1960’s, homosexual activists around the 1980’s, and now the transgender activists of the 2000’s.
Some time ago I was surprised when I searched Apple’s dictionary for the definition of gender and found a note at the bottom on usage saying that this term was popularized around 1950 in order to promote feminism and now it is being used to promote transgenderism. Apple’s dictionary has since changed its usage note, and I wish I had archived their previous comment. When I checked some popular dictionaries today, they all had notes on this term supporting an activist definition.
Apple’s dictionary:
Noun
1 either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female: a condition that affects people of both genders | someone of the opposite gender | everyone always asks which gender I identify as.
• the fact or condition of belonging to or identifying with a particular gender: video ads will target users based only on age and gender | traditional concepts of gender | I’m a strong believer that gender is fluid.
USAGE
The word gender has been used since the 14th century as a grammatical term, referring to classes of noun designated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in some languages. The sense denoting biological sex has also been used since the 14th century, but this did not become common until the mid 20th century. Although the words gender and sex are often used interchangeably, they have slightly different connotations; sex tends to refer to biological diferences [sic], while gender more often refers to cultural and social differences and sometimes encompasses a broader range of identities than the binary of male and female.
According to these new definitions, gender is different from sex. Gender means something like the way you act, and this new mushy, cloudy, play-dough definition does “not correspond to established ideas.” What are these established ideas that the new gender definition does not fit with? The traditional, Biblical views of Western culture that there are two sexes determined and defined by God. The new meaning of gender is something that is different from the “established ideas.”
Just look at the silly, dishonest, and ugly examples of the usage: “everyone always asks which gender I identify as.” No, they don’t. No one has ever asked me which gender I identify as. No one has asked the great majority of people which gender they identify as. They wrote that “example” sentence to try to teach you how to talk and how to get ready to hear other people talk. Dictionaries are largely manipulated by a small group of cultural Marxists who having failed to dominate economically, will now try to take the cultural reins of power such as schools and media. As a great example of this the Cambridge University Dictionary lists 5 different definitions of “gender” with the first 3 being political revisions of traditional, Biblical sexuality.
The same is true for the sentence: “I’m a strong believer that gender is fluid.” Not only does that sentence sound like it was written by artificial intelligence, it represents such a small minority that it cannot be helpful in establishing the usage of a word for society unless it was designed as an activist’s effort.
But I am glad that they still acknowledge over at Apple that something changed 50 years ago in Western culture. Once communism failed militarily, they began their infiltration of the culture.
Dictionary.com says:
Noun
either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior: the feminine gender.
Compare sex1 (def. 1).
a similar category of human beings that is outside the male/female binary classification. See also third gender (def. 1), genderqueer (def. 3), nonbinary (def. 3).
Merriam Webster dictionary says for the usage:
…In the 20th century sex and gender each acquired new uses…. Usage of sex and gender is by no means settled. For example, while discrimination was far more often paired with sex from the 1960s through the 20th century and into the 21st, the phrase gender discrimination has been steadily increasing in use since the 1980s and is on track to become the dominant collocation. Currently both terms are sometimes employed with their intended synonymy made explicit: sex/gender discrimination, gender (sex) discrimination.
Words should be defined by God whenever He has spoken. So for example, man is the one who stands as representative of woman. Where did that definition come from? All the usage of Scripture. Solomon says, “My son” not “my child.” If we cared to learn Hebrew or Greek, we would see masculine terms used throughout the entire corpus of God’s Revelation. When teaching pastors to pray, Paul through the Spirit says that God desires all men to be saved where men means all humans.
If God meant “all humans” then why not write that? Because God actually meant something more than all humans. He meant all males and all females as imagined in a collective group whereby men are the representative head. It is that imagination or “metaphysical dream” to use Richard Weaver’s term that unsaved people hate. They despise a certain kind of imagination. But revelation does not care about your feelings. It was given for your good, not your good vibes.
All the worst people use the word “gender” when the word sex would fit better. Why are they all united in this modernism? Perhaps the same reason that same group hates Donald Trump. They are intent on destroying Western culture because it has been most influenced by Jesus Christ. Some institutions stand in their way like the family and the church. Some politicians stand in their way. And some words stand in their way.
Our world hates the Father and His Son, so we should expect them to make an attack on sex. It is not a sin to use the word “gender” to refer to sex, but it is conceding a point and making their argument easier. Unless you have a good reason, why concede anything to the children of Marx?
