Alphabetical Entries: G

bien sûr, when in France, use gendarme even though it is a masculine word (it means "men of arms"). There are, however, both female and male gendarmes with identical job descriptions. At one time the French experimented with the term "gendarmette" for its new female members, but the term was deemed profoundly sexist, was caricatured in a movie, and has since been retired.

sex is a physical construct; gender is a cultural construct, a complex system of roles, expressions, identities, performances, and more based on society's assumptions of how sex is embodied. Notions of gender vary from culture to culture and from person to person. Our notions of "masculine" tell us how we expect men to behave and our notions of "feminine" tell us how we expect women to behave. When associating a word, activity, or profession with one sex or the other, the only acceptable limitation is genetic sex: a person who is genetically female cannot be a sperm donors because it's biologically impossible; it may be culturally unusual for men to be nannies, but it is not biologically impossible. Although these are currently the ways we tend to differentiate between "sex" and "gender," it's a faulty frame. For one thing, it relies on a narrow binary system of thinking. Just as our biological sex isn't always 100% male or 100% female, "gender" is extremely fluid, and exists on a broad spectrum. "Gender identity" is a person's internal sense or feeling of being female or male, or neither male nor female, which may not be the same as their biological sex. "Gender expression" is how people present their sense of gender to others through dress, mannerisms, and behavior. "Sexual orientation" is independent of "gender identity" and dependent on to whom people are sexually attracted. Reflecting acceptance for more gender options, Facebook currently offers users these choices: agender, androgyne, androgynous, bigender, cis, cisgender, cis female, cis male, cis man, cis woman, cisgender female, cisgender male, cisgender man, cisgender woman, female to male, FTM, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gender questioning, gender variant, genderqueer, intersex, male to female, MTF, neither, neutrois, non-binary, other, pangender, trans, trans female, trans male, trans man, trans person, trans woman, transfeminine, transgender, transgender female, transgender male, transgender man, transgender person, transgender woman, transmasculine, transsexual, transsexual female, transsexual male, transsexual man, transsexual person, transsexual woman, two-spirit. See also genderfluid, gender roles, graygender, queer (adj.), transgender, two-spirit people.

a gender bender or gender changer is an electronic device that allows either changing electrical plugs or sockets to the opposite gender (male to female, female to male) or connecting cables with the same type of connector ends (male to male or female to female). However, a gender-bender is also an individual who intentionally does not conform to predominant binary gender roles or expressions. Use only if self-referential or in a quotation. The adjective is gender-bending. See also gender.

gender bias is behavior or decision-making that is based on or reveals: stereotypical attitudes about the nature and roles of men and women; perceptions of their relative worth; myths and misconceptions about the social and economic realities encountered by both sexes (Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts Report).

this acceptable term refers to "external manifestations of gender, expressed through a person's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics. ... Typically, transgender people seek to align their gender expression with their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth." (GLAAD).

someone's deeply felt sense of self, gender identity is not always the same as the sex someone was assigned at birth. Where gender identity used to be binary-male or female-today an unlimited range of gender identity permits individuals to choose their own sense of self. When people tell you who they are, please believe them and use the gender identity and the pronouns they prefer. The terms "gender nonconforming" and "nonnormative" (those who fall outside of society's expectations) are used, but are much better replaced with something more descriptive.

gender roles (sometimes called sex roles) involve attitudes and behaviors that society expects because someone is a woman or because someone is a man. Roles traditionally assigned to men are "provider" and "protector." Women have been assigned "caregiver" and "sex object" roles. Biologically, both women and men can provide, protect, nurture, or be a sex object, but most often "cultural influences have been misrepresented as biological imperatives" (Deborah Rhode, Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Differences). Lucile Duberman (Gender and Sex in Society) says, "Society creates gender roles, and society can alter them." Contemporary realities offer flexibility to both sexes and freedom from rigid gender roles—if we can model this for upcoming generations of children. See also gender.

words that treat both sexes equally constitute gender-fair language. The words may or may not reveal the person's sex. For example, "girls and boys" specifies sex but because both are included, the phrase is gender-fair.

words that do not specify gender constitute gender-free language. "Students," "police officers," and "laypeople" are gender-free terms; "businessman" and "businesswoman" are not.

there is a problem with neutral terms. A word like 'legislator' does not exclude women, but neither does it do anything to change the mental picture for some who already see legislators as male (Amanda Smith, The Albuquerque Tribune). On the other hand, Smith tells about teachers who took two groups of children to opposite ends of the playground. The group told to build snowmen produced 11 snowmen and 1 snowwoman; the group building "snow figures" came up with 5 snowmen, 3 snowwomen, 2 snow dogs, 1 snow horse, and 1 snow spaceship. Sometimes the sexes need to be identified. "Spousal abuse" and "deadbeat parents" give the impression that men and women are equally involved; they are not. Use gender-neutral language to avoid stereotyping ("snow figures") but use gender-specific language to convey realities ("wife battering").

a term acknowledging that some people move between genders or have a fluctuating gender identity. In the broader sense, it reflects an unwillingness to categorize gender into inflexible binary distinctions. Both sexuality (whom you go to bed with) and gender (who you to go to bed as) are considered fluid concepts. See also gender, gender roles, intersex.

as an adjective, this term describes those who do not subscribe to conventional, binary gender distinctions. As a noun, it has the usual problem of seeming to sum up a whole person by one aspect of them. "Nonbinary" is sometimes used instead of "genderqueer." Neither term is a synonym for transgender, and they should only be used only for those who self-identify this way.

use only in its true sense, that is, the population to which everyone belongs. The "general population" is sometimes contrasted with LGBT people, with those with disabilities, with the "welfare" population, or with other groups not very much in favor with whoever is writing or speaking.

with the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the world outlawed targeting whole peoples, but it took a long time for the word genocide to be used; the United States did not ratify the Convention until 1988 (after the late Sen. William Proxmire, D-WISC, gave 3,211 speeches on the floor of the Senate, a different speech every day for 19 years). Do not use the euphemism "ethnic cleansing," which masks the realities and responsibilities of genocidal acts. "Ethnocide" (the mass destruction of an ethnic group, often by another ethnic group) is sometimes used interchangeably with "genocide." However, while genocide kills people, ethnocide destroys social cultures (Bartolomé Clavero, Genocide or Ethnocide, 1993-2007). See also American Indian Holocaust/Native American Holocaust, Armenian genocide, Darfur genocide, holocaust/Holocaust.

to Jews, a non-Jew; to Mormons, a non-Mormon.

avoid; in its quiet way, it discriminates against both women and men.

except for the still-acceptable generic public address of "ladies and gentlemen" and for an occasional, "He is a real gentleman," or perhaps its use in a legislative or political convention setting ("I call on the gentleman from New York" or "the gentlelady from Missouri"), this word ought to be retired. Its true mate, "gentlewoman," is mostly gone, and its other partner, "lady," has been retired in spite of herself. The word has lost its original meaning; Marjorie Luft, St. Paul, Minnesota, collects published reports of such "gentle" men as the "gentleman" who beat his dog to death, the arsonists whose work resulted in the death of two women (Crime Stoppers asked the public to help bring "these gentlemen to justice"), or serial killer Ted Bundy—also referred to in news articles as a gentleman. The press has also referred to "the gentleman who shot President Reagan" and "the gentleman who raped the elderly woman." See also lady (n.).

hobby/Sunday/weekend/amateur farmer, farmer.

see boyfriend.

unwritten/informal/oral/honorable/verbal agreement, verbal/oral promise/contract, handshake, your word, mutual understanding.

this stereotype conveys different meanings according to one's perception of what a man ought or ought not do, say, think, wear, feel, look like. These words have nothing to do with sex and everything to do with gender. Use instead courteous, civil, refined, polite, well-mannered, polished, mannerly, brave, thoughtful, considerate, agreeable, accommodating, decent, discreet, dependable, punctilious, civilized, cultivated, dignified. These adjectives can be used equally well of women. They are not synonyms for "gentlemanlike/gentlemanly" but rather what society hears by those terms.

representatives of the press, press corps, journalists, reporters. See also newsman/newspaperman.

see gentleman.

reserve these terms for their primary meanings (the terrorist German internal security police as organized under the Nazi regime or police organizations with very similar tactics). Using Gestapo/gestapo casually or "humorously" (for high-handed people) robs the words of their power and discounts horrors. See also concentration camp, "final solution," Hitler/little Hitler, holocaust/Holocaust, Nazi/nazi.

avoid using this casually, pseudogenerically, or metaphorically. Coined in the 16th century to describe the part of Venice to which Jews were confined, "ghetto" today carries such implications as crime, dilapidation, persecution, poverty, and "otherness"; it's also an idiomatic way of dismissing something as cheap or trashy. Because the modern "ghetto" is not only poor but disproportionately African-American (twice as many African Americans as whites live in high-poverty neighborhoods), it has come to sound like an indictment of a people as well as of a place (Kelefa Sanneh, "There Goes the Neighborhood" The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016). Replace the term with specific geographic descriptors or with: neighborhood, community, area, quarter, section of town/the city, district. (On hip-hop records, "ghetto" has largely given way to the warmer, more flexible "hood," which sounds less like a condition and more like a community.)