Disaggregating Gender from Sex and Sexual Orientation: The Effeminate Man in the Law and Feminist Jurisprudence

Thus, while Epstein insists that "gender is for nouns," 19 I, on the contrary, am of the view that gender is for adjectives, sex is for nouns.Among the adjectives conventionally coded masculine are "aggressive," "ambitious," "analytical," "assertive," "athletic," "competitive," "dominant," "forceful," "independent," "individualistic," "self-reliant," "self-sufficient," and "strong." 20These are the sorts of adjectives both Ann Hopkins's supporters and detractors used to describe her.Because these adjectives come straight out of the masculinity scale of one the most influential psychological inventories in sex-role research, they are by definition judged to be more desirable in American society for a man than for a woman. 2 ' I do not "think gender differences irrelevant in all social contexts."2It is in part because gender differences, unlike sex differences, 2 3 may not be 19.Epstein, supra note 16, at 981. 20.I take these adjectives from the list of masculine items on the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), the most frequently used measure in sex-role research and the standard to which other tests are most often compared.See