April 08 2013 Mon BDE.pdf - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Review and CommentWhen Did ‘Sex’Become ‘Gender’?By Ruth WalkerChristian Science MonitorIt’s interesting how browsing the Web has come to the random-accessaspect of foraging through a newspaper.And so it was, dear reader, as I was trying to catch up on Web coverageof President Obama’s Middle East trip or some other worthy topic the otherday when I ran across “Pink or Blue, It’s All Oversharing: Trendy Parents-To-Be Hold ‘Gender Reveal’ Parties,” a commentary from Sharon Brody ofWBUR in Boston.The idea is that the prospective parents hold a party at which they findout, at the same time as their guests, whether they have a little girl or a littleboy on the way.There are variations on the theme here. But in what seems the simplestapproach, the parents instruct their ultrasound technician to communicate(by sealed envelope!) knowledge of their child’s sex not with them but witha bakery, which will then bake a cake that, under a protective coat of whiteor other non-gender-specific frosting, is either pink or blue.At the party, the parents cut the cake, and the pink or blue is visible.Ms. Brody’s piece included a video clip in which a prospective fatherslices away a corner of a cake to reveal a deep pink, and then falls, in tears,into the arms of the mother-to-be.Let’s trust the tears were of joy or relief; it’s hard to tell for sure from the video.Not everyone is convinced that the “gender reveal” party is a forwardstep for civilization.Emily Yoffe of Slate, aka “Dear Prudence,” has vented about “the amazingdevelopment of the awful gender-reveal party.” Brody herself has clearlyworked up a head of steam on this one.But there’s a language issue here, too. As Brody puts it, “[W]hile I’m in theneighborhood, the party also lives next door to Sloppy Vocabulary Lane. Becausewhat we actually are revealing here is sex. Not gender, but sex. Biologicaland physiological characteristics, not a social construct. Sorry, but someof us are picky that way even if you are too squeamish to have a Sex Party.”When did “sex” become “gender”? Even in the days when people hesitatedto speak of the “legs” of a piano, they used phrases like “the fairer sex”or “sterner sex.” Over time, though, sex came to refer to an activity, ratherthan a set of characteristics. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces thismeaning back to D.H. Lawrence, in 1929.As so often happens, a newer meaning drives an older meaning out ofcirculation. Eventually there may come a tipping point, which is then reflectedin formal or legal language.Jeffrey Toobin casts some light on this point in his recent New Yorkerprofile of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, today an associate justice of the US SupremeCourt but, earlier in her career, an important litigant for women’srights. And it seems Ms. Ginsburg’s secretary, who typed up her legal briefsfor her, deserves some credit for a shift in public discourse.Mr. Toobin quotes Ginsburg: “I was doing all these sex-discriminationcases, and my secretary said, ‘I look at these pages and all I see is sex, sex,sex. The judges are men, and when they read that they’re not going to bethinking about what you want them to think about.’ “From that point on, Toobin writes, Ginsburg changed her claim to “genderdiscrimination.”Is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays andFederal Holidays by Everything Brooklyn Media, LLC(USPS 971380), located at 16 Court Street, Suite 1208,Brooklyn, NY 11241. Subscription price is $130 per year,$65 for six months. Periodicals Postage paid atBrooklyn, NY. (POSTMASTER: Send address changesto Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Circulation Office, 16 CourtStreet, Suite 1208, Brooklyn, NY 11241. Telephone:718-643-9099, ext. 103 FAX: 718-858-3291.4 • Brooklyn Daily Eagle • April 8, 2013