Off: Comic Books

[Dave Berry]

On 13 Jan 14:25, M Holmes wrote:
> Jon Browne writes:
> > Is gender incorrect? Forgive my imprecise language
>
> It's less a language nitpick than a political bete noir for me. Gender
> is something that applies to words, whereas humans and animals are
> divided into sexes. There are those with a political agenda who attempt
> to pretend that there are more sexes than two, or who wish to pretend
> that females can somehow be males and vice versa rather than simply have
> attributes usually associated with the opposite sex. There's been an
> attempt to replace the word "sex" with "gender" partly in promotion of
> this agenda in the PC movement to alter reality by altering the map

It's more complex than that.  In sexual political/gender studies
circles, "sex" refers to physical sex, while "gender" refers to
social roles and/or mental self-image.  (I'm probably not explaining
the distinction very well -- I've never been convinced by it -- but
it's along those lines).  So a male-to-female transexual has a male
body (before the operation), but a female gender.

Some people argue that there are more than two genders.  I've known
one or two people argue that there are more than two sexes, but they were
referring to various forms of hemaphroditism, or to unusual combinations
of the sex chromosomes (e.g. X, XXY, XYY).

> I suspect, because the sensitive little bunnyhuggers are a bit skittish
> about actually using the word "sex".  Most likely because it conjures up
> Dworkinish Demons from Planet Patriarchy.

If you think Dworkin herself is sensitive about the word "sex", you
obviously haven't read her novel "Mercy" (which I highly recommend, BTW).
I don't know about her other books.

Most people I met at various bisexual gatherings, *especially* the politicos,
were very happy to talk about sex, where they'd been pierced, the details
of gender dysfunction and corrective surgery, etc.  OTOH, a woman friend
told me of some women who were shocked by Andrea Dworkin when she gave
a reading in Edinburgh and was not in the least prudish!  So maybe there
are some "sensitive little bunnyhuggers" out there.  Ah well, it makes a
change from seeing feminists referred to as nazi ball-crushers.

> Mike "Unreconstructed male" Holmes

Isn't that a PC term for a much ruder word?

Dave.
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