I think I will leave your reference to Black English to wither unexplored, as it were. Whatever your motive was, it seems best left to die on the page...
"I believe gender applies to language, not people"
Traditionally it applied to the masculine, feminine, and neuter cases of nouns. Over time it has come to be standard usage for masculine and feminine differences based on their sex. Thus, a developmental pychologist speaks of "gender" roles rather than of "sex" roles.
Purists, of course disagree on the various shades of usage, but that does not amount to any doubt as to what is standard usage in general.
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Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
gender 1 (n.)
was once a solely grammatical quantity (see GENDER [2]), but it is now used to replace sex (a biological term), particularly in discussions of feminist issues, as in a gender problem, issues of gender, discrimination on the basis of gender, and the like. Both terms are now Standard in both biological and sociological uses, so restricting gender to a grammatical sense now requires careful attention to context. See SEX. |
