Ken Friedman wrote:
> The question seems to be located in your query on the nature of the term
> design as used in the conference call, and the meaning of the term
> gender issues. Design can readily be defined. If you wish, I will do so.
> Gender issues can also be defined.
Ah ha! I had naturally assumed that, as gender is a grammatical term,
that there were going to be discussions about design and linguistics.
But I see that the organizers are using the term gender in its racist
sense(*) to mean sex.
So we have sex issues, which is fine.
Yours
Adrian
(*)Making gender and sex equivalent is prejudicial and euro-centric, and
is a consequence of the fact that in many languages of nations that have
historically acted as exploiters, gender discriminates masculine from
feminine. But in other languages (often of those who have unfortunately
been exploited, and whose grammatical forms are therefore not so
visible) gender has nothing to do with sex. For example some Native
American languages have one gender for living and once-living things
like birds or bones, and another for never-living things like rocks.
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Dr Adrian Bowyer |
Senior Lecturer | e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Department of Mechanical Engineering | web: www.bath.ac.uk/~ensab
University of Bath | phone: +44 1225 826826
Bath BA2 7AY | fax: +44 1225 826928
U.K. |
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