Dictionaries:

fair sex:

Or: fairer-sex , women collectively; womankind; the female gender . Humorous or sexist term dating back to a time when specific qualities were attributed to each gender .
Synonyms: better-sex ; contrary-sex ; deadlier-of-the-species ; devout-sex ; gentle-sex ; gentler-sex ; softer-sex ; second-sex ; shrieker-sex ; sterner-sex ; unfair-sex ; weaker-sex .

Quotes:

(1) Amanda Bonner (Katharine Hepburn), a lawyer in Adam's Rib (1949): ' For years women have been ridiculed, pampered, tucked under the chin. I ask you on behalf of us all, be fair to the fair sex .'

(2) Lawrence Paros, The Erotic Tongue (1984): ' 'Sex comes from the Latin secare, "to cut or divide," and we first used the word to designate the two major categories of humanity we have come to know and love as male and female. (...) We later used the word sex not only for dividing the sexes, but to refer to qualities of being male or female. Over time we assigned specific attributes to each category. These distinctions were dutifully recorded in the esteemed OED, making-it all very official. The male was described as "the better" and "the sterner" sex ; the female, as "the fairer," "the gentler," "the softer," and "the devout" sex . Women were also called "the second" sex . For a period of time between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when people spoke of "the sex ," they had women in mind .'

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The Language of Love, Lust, Sex

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