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@HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world

2026-11-06 17:50 UTC

Confused ally here: Why isn’t it Assigned Sex At Birth? I was an ally before it was cool (before the DNC decided gay marriage should even be legal), and I’ve always felt the teaching I received among queer circles was true: “Sex is between the legs. Gender is between the ears.” Very recently, people have started referring to “male” and “female” as “gender.” Why? It introduces further questions, like was I “assigned” my height, weight, and birthday at birth?

Replies (5)

  • @Broadfern@lemmy.world 2026-11-06 17:59

    Assigned sex at birth also includes a lot of how a person is socialized (not just from family but society at large) during their formative years. So it is, in a sense, assigning a person a gender as well. Also gender and sex are frequently conflated in the English language by most people who choose not to think more critically or ask questions on these topics.

    Open ##5520280

  • Sex is a binary in the same sense that there is a gender binary. Intersex people exist, and get socialized too. AGAB is a broad category to include people of all sexes and genders

    Open ##5520364

  • @lugal@sopuli.xyz 2026-11-06 19:31

    My understanding is that sex and gender aren’t as clear cut as people used to think so a growing number of people use sex and gender interchangeably by referring to it as “sex/gender” or “gender” as a catch all term. Think about it that way: Sex is physical, like organs, hormones, height, muscle mass, … and gender is social like behavior, norms, expectations. So telling boys to eat up to they get tall and strong and letting them do a lot of sports while telling girls not to get fat and simultaneously to do more creative stuff that isn’t too active is gender. But when boys in fact grow tall and muscular, that’s testosterone and therefore sex and has nothing to do with gender. The argument is that gender and sex are too multifaceted and too intertwined to meaningful separate them. That’s at least one take away a had from reading “Who’s Afraid Of Gender” by Judith Butler. It’s not too long and an easy read. Highly recommend.

    Open ##5520522

  • @Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 2026-11-06 19:49

    Yeah, from working in a medical field - your sex can have a huge effect on the way your body interacts with certain medicines/drugs - and as such I find the trend of conflating Gender and Sex to be rather dangerous. And it's not just people that started doing it either. I've worked on multiple studies where data entry points have asked for Gender when they very much meant Sex. Again dangerous, because the answer to both is only the same for cis identifying people - and you really don't want to get that wrong. What you do with your Gender is nobody's business but your own. Express yourself however you please - but if a medical professional is asking your assigned sex at birth, consider they may be doing so to keep you safe. (For the record I'm not stating either as a binary, I'm aware intersex people exist, and do believe more should be done to accommodate them in medical settings which mostly currently act like they don't exist) Edit: Somehow the end of my second to last paragraph got replaced by a fullstop. Weird stuff

    Open ##5520558

  • @LavaPlanet@sh.itjust.works 2026-11-06 20:56

    Gender and sex used to mean the same thing, and it’s not like massive amounts of people are out there raising their kids non binary until the kids can choose for themselves, so whatever sex someone is assigned denotes the gender they’ve been assigned too.

    Open ##5520836