• @nickiwest@lemmy.world
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    3 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.

    • Iceblade
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      33 days ago

      Male/Female are also nouns, which are biological terms.

      • @MoonManKipper@lemmy.world
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        12 days 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.