gender

[Bob the kracken]

how can you tell a male and female bimac apart? i want to know so I can think up a proper namen when i get mine

 

[Nancy]

You can't easily tell them apart. It's too difficult, they're too much alike and won't hold still. So, do what we all do, just choose a name and choose a sex. You can have a look at what people have named their octopuses in the List of Our Octopuses thread at the top of Journals and Photos.

Nancy

 

[Bob the kracken]

I guess if you can't tell the genders apart then a name doesn't matter does it

 

[Thales]

What Nancy said. Oh - and you mean sex, not gender.

 

[Bob the kracken]

is there a difference?

 

[DWhatley]

Bob,
I had to look that one up too and found this on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender

"Although gender is often used interchangably with sex, today many do not think that sex and gender are the same thing. "

So much for connotation and denotation.

My octo is named Trapper after the occupation of the person who caught it. She is at the end of her brooding cycle (and life unfortunately) but we did not change her name when the discovery of her actual SEX was established

 

[Thales]

is there a difference?

Gender is the role that is assigned by society, while sex is the biological actuality. Transvestites are generally of the male sex while their gender is female.

 

[Bob the kracken]

Gender is the role that is assigned by society, while sex is the biological actuality. Transvestites are generally of the male sex while their gender is female.

.... disturbing

 

[cuttlegirl]

Well, sometimes smaller male cuttlefish pretend to be female...

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0962-8452(19990707)266%3A1426%3C1347%3AFIAAAR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U

 

[Thales]

.... disturbing