• nickiwest@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Men/women - nouns

    Male/female - adjectives

    I think the reason male and female get equated with biology is because biologists need to describe individuals in terms of characteristics within the species.

    Like, “I live with a small, white, female felis catus and a tall, Caucasian, male homo sapiens” is a weird way to tell people that I live with my cat and my husband outside of a scientific context.

      • MoonManKipper@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Exactly. The key thing is the differentiation of sex (biology) and gender (social). A bathroom for women can be used by all women, even those who happen to have male bodies. It also clarifies the difference between transsexual and transgender - most transgender people are not transsexual.