What is "gender"

Gender \Gen"der\ (j[e^]n"d[~e]r), n. [OF. genre, gendre (with excrescent d.), F.genre, fr. L. genus, generis, birth, descent, race, kind, gender, fr. the root of genere, gignere, to beget, in pass., to be born, akin to E. kin. See Kin, and cf. Generate, Genre, Gentle, Genus.]

1. Kind; sort. [Obs.] ``One gender of herbs.''
   --Shak.

2. Sex, male or female.

   Note: The use of the term gender to refer to the sex of an animal, especially a person, was once common, then fell into disuse as the term became used primarily for the distinction of grammatical declension forms in inflected words. In the late 1900's, the term again became used to refer to the sex of people, as a euphemism for the term sex, especially in discussions of laws and policies on equal treatment of sexes. Objections by prescriptivists that the term should be used only in a grammatical context ignored the earlier uses.

3. (Gram.) A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex.

   Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies to living objects.
   --R. Morris.

   Note: Adjectives and pronouns are said to vary in gender when the form is varied according to the gender of the words to which they refer.

Gender \Gen"der\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gendered; p. pr. & vb. n. Gendering.] [OF. gendrer, fr. L. generare. See Gender, n.] To beget; to engender.

Gender \Gen"der\, v. i. To copulate; to breed. [R.]
--Shak.

c.1300, "kind, sort, class," from Old French gendre (12c., Modern French genre), from stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species," also (male or female) "sex" (see genus) and used to translate Aristotle's Greek grammatical term genos.\n

\nThe grammatical sense is attested in English from late 14c.; the male-or-female sense from early 15c. As sex took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the common word used for "sex of a human being," often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is first attested 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.

"to bring forth," late 14c., from Old French gendrer, from Latin generare "to engender" (see generation). Related: Gendered; gendering.

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context grammar English) A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech), such as masculine / feminine / neuter, or animate / inanimate. 2 (context informal sometimes proscribed English) Biological sex: a division into which an organism is placed according to its reproductive functions or organs. 3 (context informal sometimes proscribed English) Biological sex: the sum of the biological characteristics by which male and female and other organisms are distinguished. 4 Identification as male/masculine, female/feminine(,) or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc typically associated with one sex. (qualifier: Compare ''gender role'', ''gender identity''.) 5 The sociocultural phenomenon of the division of people into various categories such as "male" and "female", with each having associated clothing, roles, stereotypes, etc. 6 (context obsolete English) class; kind. vb. 1 (context sociology English) To assign a gender to (a person); to perceive as having a gender; to address using terms (pronouns, nouns, adjectives...) that express a certain gender. 2 (context sociology English) To perceive (a thing) as having characteristics associated with a certain gender, or as having been authored by someone of a certain gender. Etymology 2

vb. 1 (context archaic English) To engender. 2 (context archaic or obsolete English) To breed.

1. n. a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness [syn: grammatical gender]

2. the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles; "she didn't want to know the sex of the foetus" [syn: sex, sexuality]

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In other contexts, including some areas of social sciences, gender includes sex or replaces it. For instance, in non-human animal research, gender is commonly used to refer to the biological sex of the animals. This change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. In 1993, the USA's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex. Later, in 2011, the FDA reversed its position and began using ''sex ''as the biological classification and gender as "a person's self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual's gender presentation."

The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. While the social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity. In the English literature, there is also a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.

The Gender is a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It originates in originally marshy flatlands near Steensel and flows through Veldhoven and its eastern district Meerveldhoven in a general east-northeast direction towards Eindhoven.

The Gender is one of many small streams that drain what once was the marshy heath and moorland of eastern Noord-Brabant and the Kempen plateau. Similar streams include the Dommel, Kleine Dommel, Keersop, Tongelreep, Aa, Binnen-Dieze and Run. All of these streams at one point or other merge to finally form River Dieze in Den Bosch, which in turn flows into River Maas.

Near Eindhoven, the Gender originally flowed just north of the medieval city walls, serving as the north part of the city moat, to end in confluence with the Dommel stream. As early as the fifteenth century, its course was diverted southward through the city centre, to provide the city with freshwater supplies and fire-extinguishing means. By the 19th century, the stretch within the old city had been filled in and the Gender now ended in De Vest, the city moat, which itself was connected to the Dommel. Archaeological excavations during the 1980s and 1990s before the construction of a new shopping centre have brought several branches of the artificial inner-city section of the Gender to light, including a connection to the moat of Eindhoven Castle, which stood just east of the city walls.

20th-century channelisation and the emergence of large-scale residential areas in the Gender basin have seen the last stretch before the city centre cut off. In order to regulate water levels of the Dommel and Gender streams, which occasionally threatened to flood Eindhoven's inner city area, a drainage canal (Afwateringskanaal) was dug in the late 1930s to connect the Dommel to the newly constructed Beatrix Canal and so dispose of excess water. Into this canal the Gender now discharges. A further downstream section of the Gender between the canal and the Engelsbergen pond remains, but receives little water of the original stream. Two districts of Eindhoven that are situated on its banks were named after the Gender stream: Genderdal ('Gender Dale') and Genderbeemd ('Gender Meadow').

Gender refers to the distinction between male and female.

Gender or Genders may also refer to:

• Grammatical gender, in linguistics, a system of noun classes
• Voice (grammar), in linguistics, a system of verb classes
• Gender of connectors and fasteners, in electrical and mechanical trades, the designation of male or female connectors
• Gender of tonalities, in music, the designation of major and minor keys as masculine or feminine
• Gender (stream), a stream in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands
• Gendér, an Indonesian musical instrument used in gamelan orchestras
• "Gender", a song by Orgy from Candyass
• Genders (surname) (a list of people surnamed Genders)

A gendèr is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks (Bali) or a padded wooden disk (Java). Each key is a note of a different pitch, often extending a little more than two octaves. There are five notes per octave, so in the seven-note pélog scale, some pitches are left out according to the pathet. Most gamelans include three gendèr, one for sléndro, one for pelog pathet nem and lima, and one for pelog pathet barang.

The gendèr is similar to the Balinese gangsa, which also has an incredible individual resonator under each key, and the saron, which, although trough-resonated, does have a set of tuned metal bars or keys. It is also similar to the Javanese slenthem, which is pitched lower and has fewer notes.

In some types of gamelan, two gendèrs are used, one (called the gendèr panerus) an octave higher than the other. In Gamelan Surakarta, the gendèr panerus plays a single line of melodic pattern, following a pattern similar to the siter. The gendèr barung plays a slower, but more complex melodic pattern that includes more separate right and left hand melodic lines that come together in kempyung (approximately a fifth) and gembyang (octave) intervals. The melodies of the two hands sometimes move in parallel motion, but often play contrapuntally. When playing gendèr barung with two mallets, the technique of dampening, important to most gamelan instruments, becomes more challenging, and the previously hit notes must be dampened by the same hand immediately after the new ones are hit. This is sometimes possible by playing with the mallet at an angle (to dampen one key and play the other), but may require a small pause.

Both types of gendèr play semi-improvised patterns called cengkok, which generally elaborate upon the seleh. These are relatively fixed patterns, but can be varied in a number of ways to suit the style, pathet, irama, and mood of the piece, as well as the skill of the performer. The cengkok repertoire for gendèr are more developed and specific than those for most other elaborating instruments. Similarly, the gendèr barung is likely to give cues for changing parts or irama, especially in the absence of a rebab. It may also play the buka of a piece.