Last week Home Truths was musing, gently, on words that traditionally apply to one gender ...
Julia Paul got her response in first...
'Feisty' gets up my nose every time. You never hear about feisty men, only
women and occasionally children or elderly. I've only ever seen/heard it
used by men, and there's one particular film reviewer in Radio Times...
nuff said.
Then Helen Kidman had a word or two to say on the subject
One word that you said in your programme today has prompted me to write. That word is 'gender' You are not the only person who uses this word when you mean 'sex' - why is it that the whole of society seems to think that the word 'sex' is un-PC! May I explain - 'gender' is sociologically determined (e.g. ideas of that is considered masculine or feminine in a particular society) while 'sex' is biologically determined. Therefore you cannot say someone is of the male or female 'gender' - they are of the male or female 'sex'.
And, finally, Ian pointed out a nice reversal ...
"In the far west of Cornwall it is still fairly common practice to refer to a male as - ' your looking some preddy" (pretty) or to a female as " you're looking 'andsome my bird'"
