Sex

[CyberSmudger]

Das Mädchen ist jung. Ist sie jung? Oder ist es jung?

PS: When I wrote that the subject was 'Sex' I meant that it was 'Gender'. But it got your attention, didn't it?

[Sprachprofi]

Either one is correct, because natural gender is more important than grammatical gender.

Good idea for the title. Unfortunately it doesn't work in German: "gender" has to be "das Geschlecht", no double meanings.

[luey]

So are there different words in German for sex and gender? In a scientific sense, sex refers to biological sex, whereas gender refers to cultural definitions of male and female. They're really quite different - does this distinction exist in German?

[Kare]

I could be wrong, but I think we Germans just throw it togther.
Intelectually we know both concepts, but the biological gender and the gender image in which you are raised are both in the word "Geschlecht". The later one could be called "Soziales Geschlecht" (social gender) or some other word around the concept of socialisation..

[Salivia_Baker]

Well I think if Germans want to talk about the cultural definition of a sex then you would probably talk about Geschlechterrollen. I think the Germans make it more clear that biological gender and what society say what male/female is is something different. its "role" you (must) play.
Sometimes you also use the word Rollenverteilung if you talk about "typical" female and "typical" male. Like when in a love relationship the woman is more masculine and the man is more feminine (or acts opposite to what it considered as such) you could say they have a reversed Rollenverteilung. Then you only talk about the social implications.

I actually like the idea that there is a distinction between the biological and the social sex.