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I am a native English speaker trying to learn more about German and its politics. I am curious as to why the English word “gender” is used, in a modified form, in German.

My immediate reaction is that it marks all issues related to non-traditional understandings of gender issues with a “foreign” warning label, to bolster a traditionalist claim that this is Anglo-American politics being imposed from the outside.

But on second thought, the explanation could simply be that German uses “Geschlecht” to mean biological sex, gender identity, and grammatical gender, and the English-derived word is used to emphasize the difference.

However, the first hypothesis seems to carry some force even if it was not the original intent of those who introduced/used the word, since it does seem to scream out “foreign” with each utterance. Is my impression here at all valid? If so, does the cultural left wing try to avoid the use of “Gendern”?

mbsq
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    First, this - per the first sentence - is not a question about language but about politics. It doesn't belong into this forum. Second, whoever answers this question likely has his answer downvoted into oblivion from the fanatics. I, for my part, don't need that and this is why i won't answer and voted to close this question. – bakunin Jun 28 '23 at 09:58
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    I'm voting to close this as well, but not without asking why you apparently seem to think "foreign" would be considered a "warning label" by Germans. – tofro Jun 28 '23 at 11:32
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    It's a "trend word" imported from the U.S. That's all. Maybe this trend will sustain, maybe it will be forgotten in a few years as hula-hoop. – Janka Jun 28 '23 at 12:11
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    @tofro: 'why you apparently seem to think "foreign" would be considered a "warning label" by Germans' - this. I think you considerably underestimate the prevalence of foreign loanwords, especially those originating from English, in everyday German. – O. R. Mapper Jun 28 '23 at 12:42
  • @tofro sorry for my poor word choice. I didn’t mean to suggest all Germans are such and such, just that some actors might have a reason to mark something as originating in foreign politics. – mbsq Jun 28 '23 at 15:39
  • @O.R.Mapper I am well aware that there are many loan words from English. But im asking about the origin of this particular usage. – mbsq Jun 28 '23 at 15:43
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    This contains all that can be said about it. In short: The term was introduced in German as part of the reception of Judith Butler's book Gender Trouble. – ccprog Jun 28 '23 at 19:41
  • @bakunin et. al.: "I don't need it" isn't a valid reason to vote to close. You may leave the question alone, if you don't need it. That the word was introduced by traditionally left circles isn't an opinion and well educated people have arguments for their opinion. You can consult public material from left parties, to verify, that is permanently used from the left to distinguish biological sex from the sex role of the society (which varies across regional cultures and time) as evidence. I vote to reopen. – user unknown Jun 29 '23 at 04:03
  • @userunknown: "I don't need [to be downvoted...]" was my reason for not answering, not for voting to close. This is not a question of being left, right or two-thirds-upper-downthere. This is a case of not knowing the proper indefinite pronoun for the undecided-non-binary-trans-foobar gender. – bakunin Jun 29 '23 at 07:00
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    @bakunin:I don't see your point. Whether "Gender" is used more often by right or left leaning peoples might be objectively investigated - no need to get opinionated about it. Whether foreign words are commonly avoided from the left, because they alienate the audience, might as well been discussed without much personal engagement. Of course some people might get into a heated debate but then it can still be moderated and people, who get annoyed, might turn away. We needn't treat ourselves like little children who can't argue in a civilized form. There is lot of evidence, we can. – user unknown Jun 30 '23 at 03:43

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