> I'd be curious why, all of a sudden, people are tip toeing around the
> word when they didn't in, oh, say 1943 when
> Talcott Parsons wrote, "Sex Roles in the American Kinship
> System" and people filled out surveys that asked them to
> identify their "sex".
Because in 1943 no one knew the difference between "sex roles" (sic) and "whether you have a Y chromosome or not" ... today we do, but in an over-adjustment, they (maddeningly) now use the word "gender" for both meanings. It's as simple as I said earlier: they are stupid. Adding to the mess is that "other" meaning of the word sex: they've been (superficially) taught that talking about sex (the act) in public was, as Doug said, impolite; and they've been confused by the "sex role" -> gender issue (which they never quite understood in the first place what all the fuss is about), and so they say: "Fine, we'll say gender instead of sex. Happy now?"
If you ask someone "What is your height role?" or "What color do your eyes act in social situations?" I think this gets the point across quite well.
/jordan