biosex (n): a portmanteau neologism of "biological" and "sex"
For the past year here at Sexpertesse - as well in my experiences as an educator, researcher, and commentator - I've been using this word "biosex" without letting my audience in on a critical element of the word's history. I've casually talked about "biosex this" and "biosex that" and "his biosex" and "my chromosomsal biosex" as if this was a word that everyone knew and used in everyday conversation. But there's a little secret about "biosex:" the truth is, I made the word up.
For years now, I've watched as some people cringed or became embarrassed when I talked about "sex." The problem was, I wasn't always talking about the act of sex, but rather about the biological reality determined through a sex-determination system. Additionally, I've had conversations in which I mistook one "sex" for another. Once, while chatting with a friend about a new woman I had met, my friend asked, "And what's her sex?" Given the context of this meeting - this woman and I had befriended one another at a health summit for transgender people - I know now that my friend intended to ask me if my new friend was cis- or transgender. However, I, like many people, thought of only the more titillating definition of the word "sex," and so I replied, "Uh...I think she likes dudes," and clarified with the brilliant information that "I think she's vanilla because she wasn't wearing a collar or something." Clearly, I had misunderstood the question; the information requested did not regard her sexual activities or interests, but her biology.
And so I created "biosex." Its etymology is simple: it's a portmanteau of "biological" and "sex," and is used exactly in the same manner as "sex."
