Ambiguous usage of the word is one of the reasons oppressors have such outdated and undereducated views. The less ambiguity the easier it can be explained to the common folk.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The fun bit is that the word gender was pulled from linguistics into sociology exactly to try to make a less ambiguous situation.

It literally went "what if we talked about people having gender like the French talk about objects?” Much like people, a table is feminine in French regardless of if it has a penis or not.

Later, people decided to use gender as a synonym for sex and complain about using the word gender in a way that's ambiguous with sex.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 13 hours ago

a table is feminine in French regardless of if it has a penis or not.

Which most tables in France do, of course.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Gender has been conflated with human sex from the fifteenth century, but I like your explanation of the sociological application.