Back on reddit I remember getting downvoted a lot for that time I suggested a guy referring to women as “females” was a red flag. Glad I’m not alone in thinking that.
I have such a weird take on this, due to being in the military for so long. We absolutely do refer to one another as “males” and “females”.
Ie. “There was a female SSgt that was really helpful in customer service” or “I had to remind a male Soldier to put on his cover when he left the building” or “I had a female troop once”.
However, I try really hard when I’m speaking to a non-military member to switch up my phrasing. Sometimes I still slip up, and I gotta be like “shit, sorry, I mean that woman cashier over there” or whatever it is that I’m talking about.
I will say though, I do distinctly remember having that conversation during basic training, and fucking hating being referred to as “female” in the beginning, and that thought being shared amongst my flightmates. I can still hear the TIs shouting from across the parking lot: “GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW, FE-MALE!” Ugh.
It was just 16 years ago now, so “female” has become normalized.
In your first examples, you are using female as an adjective. A female troop, a female Sargent, a male soldier. That’s usually fine. Even “that female cashier over there” is probably fine. However if you say “that female over there” or like you pointed out, “get over here right now, female” or really any other instance where female is used as a noun instead of an adjective, that’s where it becomes gross. It’s all about adjective vs noun. Adjective: usually fine. Noun: usually not.
In my native language it’s highly offensive to call a woman a female. Didn’t know that’s the thing in English.
At the same time we call children “human larve” and everyone is ok with that
At the same time we call children “human larve” and everyone is ok with that
In Low Saxon (and Northern German) there’s “Schietbüddel”. Depending on how you translate it it could mean “chaotic/sticky minion” or “bundle of excrement”.
“Bundle of excrement”. Wow I like it
I use to call to females woman
I write it females because I don’t like the look of the word woman, it’s not a sexist thing it just never looks right to me and I always worry I did it wrong.
In general, female is an adjective. It can be used as a noun, but generally shouldn’t be, at least when talking about humans. So you can say “my female colleague” or “a woman I work with”. You can say “the female mind” or “a woman’s brain.” You can say “a panel of female postal workers” or “a panel of women who work for the post office.” If you stick to the adjective/noun rule, you’ll come off far less offensive/gross sounding. Hope this helps.
I just avoid it altogether and rephrase my use of “females” to be inoffensive but to be honest I don’t particularly get why it’s so offensive.
Using “male” and “female” as nouns is offensive because it dehumanizes the subject and reduces them to their gender.
A “woman” is inherently human – specifically an adult female human. By calling that person only “a female” you remove their humanity and maturity, leaving only their sex. This is why it’s so common for creepy types, and why it’s so creepy, because it betrays that only one of those three descriptors is important to them.
It doesn’t dehumanize anyone though, male and female are the two most common sexes in humanity so it being either doesn’t disqualify you for humanity anymore than any other multi hyphenate.
Also no woman isn’t specist in is etymology, its sexist technically we only take it as human because only a human can consent to enter into marriage.
Wif = wife / man = mankind. Literally the wif of men, technically you aren’t even a woman if you aren’t married or at least capable of being married.
Sorry. I didn’t realize I was talking to the man in the article.
That’s a non argument.
“You’re a bad person! How dare you ask a legitimate question in a respectful way!”
Rather than “x is because of y” or “I’m sorry I’m not sure I can answer that” but rather going out of your way to be cruel.
So fun question, how is the way you’re talking to me not dehumanizing.
Any wedding where the bride is allowed to speak, and wear clothes, is doomed to fail.
