Caterpillar genders

[Doug Yanega]

Sunsol Daniels wrote:

>>It isn't a matter of being Politically Correct. As I see it people seem
>>afraid of using the word "sex" and use "gender" incorrectly as a
>>euphemism. Gender properly refers to a gramatical classification.
>>In many languages is has nothing to do with the sex of the noun.
>
>No, I don't think so.  I think the language is changing to become clearer.
>  People see "sex" as an activity, and "gender" as a state of being.

I think this is closer to the way people are using the words these days. I
wonder, for instance, whether "neuter" and "hermaphrodite" would be
considered *sexes* or *genders*. I tend to think the latter. And it's
certainly true that folks who work on bacteria, fungi, etc., don't use
"sexes" to refer to the various mating types, though they could possibly be
persuaded to use "gender". It wouldn't seem to me such a bad thing for this
to become established, regardless of its "political" aspects, which I could
hardly care less for.

Peace,

[NOTE THAT I WILL BE LEAVING BRAZIL ON FEB 13]

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82