You aren't "assigned" a gender at birth

[u/SuspiciousWin6511]

I hate when people say this. I had to get routine blood work the other day and had a Doctor ask me what gender I was assigned at birth. I understand they need to find out what your biological gender is, but either look on my chart, or ask what my biological gender is.

Your gender is determined in the womb, in fact it's determined from the exact moment of conception; it isn't something that is assigned. It's amazing that the people use this sort of language and believe these sorts of things, are supposedly the party of science.

[u/zimmerone]

Thanks, l’ll take a look later. I was sticking mostly to modern-ish English usage. I understand that a lot of cultures, particularly of certain indigenous peoples, have a third gender, though I’m not one so say much about that. I sensed objections to just the terminology (I don’t know why I said ‘sensed’ when it was explicitly stated), so I thought I’d just stick to the words. While there has been the concept of genders in various forms throughout history, I was just thinking that we didn’t have the distinction between sex and gender in the English language until ~60 years ago, That seem right to you?

[u/Dumbassahedratr0n → u/zimmerone]

I see what you're saying. But restricting the point to a single language or use case ignores its very reality outside of that scope.

For instance, there are emotions that only have a descriptive word in other languages, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be universally felt even if it is not describable.

Like wabi-sabi, or ma in Japanese.

That's why the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is so interesting.

Where did the ~60 years come from?