I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word “female”, is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?
I don’t know if this is the best place to ask, if it’s not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^
It’s super context dependent. Asking “How do I ask a woman out?” Vs “How do I ask a female out?” say very different things about you.
It’s kind of like the difference between talking about people who are black and referring to someone as “one of the blacks”. It’s subtle, but the latter is objectifying where as the former is descriptive.
It’s even more subtle than that. We’ve defeated most actual injustice in our society, and now people are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find injustice to fight against.
I have some bad news to tell you about capitalism
hmmm, that’s an assessment I can’t get behind, lol
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read this year.
One place where it makes sense to use the word female as a noun is when an individual word like “woman” doesn’t work. For instance, if there are girls and women together, neither “women” nor “girls” is appropriate. In that case, I think “female” is the only option. I’d be happy to hear if anyone has an alternative.
In that case I still try to avoid “females”, instead I prefer using “ladies” or just “women”, even if there are girls present.
Even if the girls are toddlers?
Just say “ladies” at that point.
It’s not like it’s hard to do.
Ok but what if they don’t hold any land or titles?
It’s not negative per se , but quite impolite, not least because a woman is so much more than her gender.
Yas, Queen
You can use it to compare humans with animals. It is often used in animal documentaries. You can use female/male as a name in general. Then you have it very clear in a little bit insulting style. On the other hand it’s not really insulting and nobody can expect from a second or third language guy to speak in a non-offensive style like US- or UK establishment people like to do. This would be racism. 🤡
“I have a female friend.” (As in “I have a friend that’s a woman.”) “I’ve talked with a female today.” (As in “I’ve talked with a woman today.”)
The first one is fine, because isn’t using the word as an adjective. The second one is derogatory, because it is being used as a substantive.
So stating a fact is derogatory?
Where the fuck do y’all get your information?
Found the incel lol
Considering I read the initial statement to my mom (60) and she said wtf?
Y’all just assume. Hope ya don’t go through life with that kind of outlook you will never make friends
“My mom said it’s OK” is just telling on yourself, my dude.
Lmao this incel can’t stop commenting in here 😂
This is what I said to someone who asked a very similar question about the same thing a while back:
‘Females’ is, effectively, a ‘technical term’ you might say, that isn’t used in normal conversation. It’s used specifically in situations where distance from the subject being discussed is intentional. It is the sort of language used in police reports, medical reports and the like…when it’s even being applied to humans at all. Its use is perhaps more common referring to animals; it’s the sort of terminology you’d expect to hear in a nature documentary.
The people trying to push its use are intending to make the subjects - women - sound ‘other’ and separate and alien by referring to them as ‘females’. Not everyone who is picking up this terminology intends it that way, but the connotations are unavoidable because of how language works in common use, and therefore if you don’t intend it that way, you badly need to be made aware of it so you can stop.
I guess it would be kind of like referring to another person as “human”.
"Hey who helped you with this?”
“This human over here, my co-worker.”
Saying ‘female’ to refer to a person who is female can sound overly technical or abstracted, and therefore a bit dehumanizing or depersonalizing.
That said, some people over-react, and sometimes it is more appropriate or at least fine to say ‘female’, for example if you were speaking in the abstract about something that spans between women and girls, or is specifically about biological sex.
But most of the time ‘women’ or ‘girls’ or even ‘ladies’ is going to be more appropriate.
What language are you coming from, out of curiosity?
I’d say it’s a tone and context sorta thing.
Definitely.
[NOT OKAY] “Hey guys, check out those females!”
[Okay.] “There were seventy-five males and sixty females in the study.”
[NOT OKAY] “Gonna go out with my favourite females tonight” (unless you’re a girl in a girls night out and doing a comedic take on the bro culture)
[Okay] “The shoplifter was ~170cm tall, female, wore large sunglasses and ran surprisingly fast for someone in such high heels smelling so strongly of chardonnay”
Why is the third bad
Idk I’m not sure about the rules myself but I imagined it as a man saying that to a bro who would reference the first dude as “a guy” while still referencing women as females.
So essentially it’s just about consistency. For me at least. Either “man / woman” or “male / female”.
Idk I’m not the language police
I think the people who “infected” this word just have the general mindset of human relations being no different from any other animals, e.g. they subscribe to how Jordan Peterson explains human behavior by comparing us to lobsters. They tend to take human ideas like trust and altruism (love, if you will) out of the equation and view relationships only as evolutionary transactions. So they probably wouldn’t have any problem referring to themselves as males any more than they refer to women as females.
It makes them sound like specimens, dehumanizes and objectifies them. Kinda analogous to saying “I’m taking my offspring to the movies” instead of “I’m going with my son to the movies.”
Everything is offensive to someone.
Ignore the idiots. We non native speakers are graceful enough to attempt to talk with them politely, that is more than enough. Appeasing snowflakes is not my goal.
As a native speaker, I approve of your opinion.
Depends entirely on how you use it. There are many perfectly valid uses for the word, like in science or on a checkbox where you select your gender. The point where it can get offensive is when referring to individuals or groups of women as “females” where you could instead just use “women”. It’s language often used by incels and the like.
im a female. im offensive. does that count?
a female what?
yes
what ain’t no species I ever heard of. do they speak english in what?
I’ve switched to Lady for a lot of descriptors that I used to use Female. And a lot more They. Or just a physical description, like the person with the dark hair.
Edit: I’m probably trying harder than I need to. I just want to accommodate people.