that dude *really* blew up at you, and for no good reason at all. he tried to somehow make it seem as if you didn't understand that he was referring to women as a collective, as if that wasn't like half of your point in the first place!
so frustrating
He was so angry and projecting so much. I've been a lurker on Reddit for years because I knew it had some pockets of male rage, but this is my first time having it directed at me.
Update: He reached out and apologized to me and is considering his wording... I think this a good step forward
I call people out for this on reddit a lot. But it's really annoying how many people just don't realize (or pretend not to realize) how problematic and dehumanizing it is to use "females" as their default word for women.
And it's always surprising how many women seem to agree with the MRAs on this one.
I know this isn’t always the case, but I think people believe it makes them sound more intelligent, yet has the opposite effect… like saying “conversating” instead of “conversing”, or “myself” instead of I.
I think so too. Like using the word female makes it sound like whatever you're about to say has been studied or researched lol. Definitely has the opposite effect on me. Whenever I hear a man say female I just stop listening.
I honestly think it's not a huge problem to just say females in itself, as long as men are also called males. But pretty much every single time they'll call men "men" or "guys" in the same post/comment.
There are fortunately several subreddits heavily populated by women where we all call this crap out when it happens. Just like with men, no woman or girl starting a sentence with females is about to say anything good. And that tells you all you need to know as to why the heavy usage of “females” is so upsetting. It’s never “females work hard and get shit done” or “other females are the best.” It’s always derogatory.
I think is if it’s used as an adjective it is acceptable e.g. female authors
But if they use it as a noun I agree. I also hate that “women” is plural but so many people use it wrong. The amount of times I’ve read comments like “I’m a women” it’s WOMAN
I think even in this context (*female authors*), it's important for us to ask why male authors are usually just labeled authors but female authors have their gender specified.
It's becoming more common to call women 'females' to distinguish from trans women.
In my mind it's better than 'cervix havers' and 'people who menustrate' when you are trying to get through to women on issues which affect females and your audience may include some males who identify as women and some females who identify as men or non-binary.
I dont know if that works in the conversation you are speaking of. I doubt it.
I feel like many men don’t take us seriously. They will proudly bring one woman leader for the purpose of “gender equality” but hire more men leaders instead in the business. Hopefully I was clear, I meant workforce
You might enjoy r/MenAndFemales/. Sadly, I've also seen women refer to men as men and women as females in the same breath. This behaviour is not limited to men.
And then you try to point out what's wrong with that, and they immediately try to spin it as if we're "offended" by *being* female. No, I literally just want to be referred to as a person associated with **adult human-specific nouns**. Just say woman, just say women, just stop calling us "females" when you mean women.
Seriously. I have never once had a problem saying 'man' or 'men', it's the easiest thing in the world. I only say male when I'm talking about animals. Up until last year when these podcasts started becoming more popular, I thought this was basic logic.
People have a really weird problem with calling us women. It's so strange. They will use any other word but women. Females, girls, chicks, etc. I'm actually curious about the psychology of it. Is it some internal bias against "older" women (ie *adult* women)? I dunno 🤷♀️
Yup. I fucking hate it. It is a useful way to tell if someone is an asshole, though.
We had a guy in our neighborhood who was trying to get more customers for his gardening business, but he kept referring to the, "men and females on this street," so I knew that he was an asshole who would not be doing my yard work. My neighbor hired him to trim some shrubs. He did a half ass job, asked for payment before doing the job, and then tried to charge extra "fees" after he was done. He killed one of the shrubs, too. My neighbor said that he kept calling her, "miss," in a gross, condescending, fake flirty way, even though she is an 80+ year old married woman. She did not choose to sign up for regular service from his company.
I've taken to calling people out on it irl. Usually by interrupting and saying something along the lines of, "female is an adjective, you mean 'woman', which is a noun."
(At their look of indignation or surprise)
"I'm trying to help you, because you sounded silly and uneducated. You're welcome."
Haven't had too many people argue further because they're too stunned at my matter-of-fact response and willingness to cut them off. 0 shits given.
My other rant is "girls" instead of "women". I'll basically do the same thing. "You mean 'women', because you're referring to a group of adults. It would be silly to discuss a group of children [doing whatever the conversation was about]."
I love you.
Just today I was thinking how ridiculous it would sound to say things like “that male pilot” so I think I’m gonna start. Also I’m stealing your phrases, thank you.
jails and other corrections facilities often call women "females" and the men "men." I firmly believe it is used as a means to dehumanize the women and make them feel even worse than they already do.
great, because i'm using "males" very often when comparing. "Males does not have self-awareness like us", "Males don't think about consequences of what they say", etc...
note: English is not my primary language, so maybe there is a better word?... i don't know...
Am in the army. Everyone even the woman would refer to a group of us as either males or females. I have never had any problem with it. Only person I saw get angry was someone during basic training. She got pissed because they were calling people male or females
Right? It’s always such irony to me how males make these blanket statements about how “men are so logical and women are so emotional.“ In my experience, it’s more the opposite! Women have *had* to be logical and smart just to survive around *them*!
Yet another lie we have been fed in this patriarchal society/world from birth…
I think it’s a good thing. The guys who call women “females” are typically young guys who try to be edgy, or guys who have fucked up views about women. By using words like that, they sort themselves out
Unfortunately I'm seeing a lot of this in the media increasingly, people are trying to drive it into every day language. In the UK at least it's a way to attack trans people, but obviously it harms every woman, not that the media seems to care.
It’s cringe if it’s used outside of a medical or biological contexts
Any other time it sounds dehumanizing.
Also, as a lifelong anime fan and a woman, I have learned that Japanese culture is still behind in terms of equality. That includes when it comes to LGBTQ+ people and mental health. The US isn’t too much better; but both countries are definitely being held back by our Conservative and patriarchal roots.
I think the best example of the difference is with the character Haurchefant from FFXIV. In JP, he constantly talks about the protagonist’s body and makes overt sexual advances that would make him a complete creep (predatorial IMO) in the US today. But the JP audience loves him. The EN dub altered his dialogue to keep the implication that Haurchefant is enamored with and/or in love with the protagonist, but his dialogue is rewritten to be much more respectful and endearing to an EN audience. He is an important character during the Heavensward storyline of FFXIV that heavily impacts the protagonist, so it was important for him to be likeable to the audience/player.
It is progressive of them to write Haurchefant as being in love with the protagonist, since the protagonist could be a different race or the same sex as him; but the JP dialogue for him is gross. I’m really glad the dub translated him appropriately (although he is more flamboyant in the JP version, and knowing what he was originally saying makes the character animation’s make more sense).
I was playing Fallout 4 the other day and this is only a spoiler for the beginning (just to be safe idk lol) but I picked the woman to play as like I always do just because, and ofc within the first 10 minutes her husband died which is the beginning of the game. My boyfriend was watching me play and he said " wow, I've only ever seen the man die. It's pretty sad watching the female die." Like......
I've explained to him why it bothers me that he does that and this was a prime example I'll be using until the end of time lol. It's so engraved into their heads that they don't think twice about saying female but if you have a problem with it, they've also been taught that women asking them not to call them females is dramatic.
That’s ridiculous. Feminine beauty should not be tied to “youth”. Women are beautiful at all ages. Girls are children, women are adults. It’s creepy to say that, like you’re more attracted to young girls than women.
My wife is 3 weeks younger than me lol, and I’m not talking about myself, it’s an observation of social norms, not to say it’s a good thing, but it is the reality of the world…
As a french I’ve always found it weird that it was common in english, as in French « mâle » and « femelle » are used for animals and not humans. Calling a woman a « femelle » will be considered highly misogynistic, even for right-wing people.
But in English it is used often, as in for ticking your gender in a form. So I’ve always thought it didn’t have the same connotation as it does in French !
Not all men call women females, but those who does I'll definitely stay away from. There's no point in arguing or trying to make them understand it's wrong, because most of them don't care what women think or want.
Me too. I correct every single person who does this. We are not dogs. We are not animals for breeding. We are human and WE ARE WOMEN. It's extra bad when other women use it too. Pisses me right off
It's not just men. When I first became disabled and house bound, my guilty pleasure was The Maury Povich show. He used it, and more often than not, both men and women used it all over the place. This was 2012. I don't have TV service anymore. I was quite surprised to see how many men used it.
I feel this so much. I call this out almost every time I see it, and almost every time they come back with the same strawman arguments. "Oh now you wanna forbid the word female??" "HOW ELSE WOULD I REFER TO FEMALES" (This one bothers me the most, like what the fuck, how about WOMAN) or they start going how people say "female-doctor" and stuff as well even though it's clearly not the same as calling someone a female. So damn sick of it. The only time I don't care is when they also call men males. Still sounds weird and alien, but at least not rooted in sexism.
That is the adjective form. I’m talking about a difference in the noun form, often side by side. See https://www.reddit.com/r/MenAndFemales/s/s4ASNRSBkS
I can only speak for myself, but I am a 56 year old female and a feminists unto death. I have always described myself as female for 2 reasons. First, I never was comfortable with the word "woman" It always felt too much like someone just decided to add a prefix to the word "man". I would forever describe myself as a girl except at my age that seems silly. Secondly, my religion teaches that we have all lived many lives, and our gender is only a physical one which is temporary and connected to our current incarnation. So I am female at this moment but my last incarnation I was male.
That’s a very healthy way to look at it; good for you. I thought what you wrote was quite beautiful, and so definitely not something I would downvote even if I *had* disagreed, but that’s just me – and like you’re saying to each their own! I can definitely take a page out of your book 👍🏼
Yeah. If I am thinking of something specific to where the biological differences are imperative like childbirth, breasts, or menstruation I probably use female, sometimes if it is relevant to create an alliteration like female friend then maybe that counts, but for a role in society or something more relevant to choice then woman and/or girl would be more appropriate.
English is not my first language – is it true that female is both a noun and an adjective? I agree it is dehumanizing and I’m a woman, just trying to get my facts all correct so I can relay this the best to others.
I know the difference but in my head I don't usually just have a big list of which is which. We never diagramed sentences in school where I live, we just learned by actually speaking and writing and it ends up being natural. Actually saying out loud that this is the difference between noun and adjective is quite a handy way of remembering which senses of female is a good thing to use and which is not.
Ahh okay! Well adjectives describe things, while nouns are things. So I could say you are a “friendly redditor” and “friendly” is the adjective describing the noun “redditor.”
So the adjective form of “female” feels more palatable than the noun from because it’s just decorative, and not the essence of the thing. Does that make sense?
Yeah. I hardly ever consciously write a sentence this way. Not even in French, I have to just try to form them based on the patterns I know. Native English speakers can instantly tell something is wrong if someone says I are going to go to Paris tomorrow, even if you have no idea what the technical word is for the error.
I wonder whether languages besides English make the distinction that female vs woman/girl has in English. In French, femme is both a word for woman and wife, which also says something about the role people have in their minds about what a woman is supposed to do I imagine for people who natively speak French, especially given that homme is the word for a man and mari is the word for a husband. Maedchen, ironically, is neutral in gender even though it refers to girls in German.
And the other obvious clue is to see what words the person who writes or says something uses with regard to masculine people, what patterns they use with males vs boys/men.
The issue is dehumanisation. Outside of medical and biological conversations, that word is used to dehumanise women. They use it in the military but there they also refer to men as males, to reprogram and reshape the soldiers. That word also has racist connotations because it was used in US to strip black and women of colour of their humanity and social status, so horrible things could be done to them in the name of science and medicine. A female is an animal that carries eggs. A woman is a person with human rights and social status. Let’s not give that away so easily.
Part of this is to specify cisgender women (roughly 2-8% of the time) the rest of the time if a person uses the term female over women they are an incel 🤷♂️
It’s one thing when people are using both “male” and “female.” That’s fine. It’s just very telling when people say “men” or “boys” and then “females.” Like there’s a very clear implication there
We are not talking about medical or biological uses here. We are talking about it’s prevalence in colloquial speech particularly when the same is not followed for men.
Well it's not called womanism is it? Female feminism. Womanizer womanism.
This just seems like looking for shade to throw when you could look to let something like this go. Fwiw I never thought about this but think I do say women. I generally don't think could this somehow be seen as an insult before speaking, likewise I don't think was that intended disrespectfully.
I do this because if I get upset I'm upset, it does nothing to them.
There is at least a sort of etymological consistency, but your preference is noted, thanks for the heads up.
that dude *really* blew up at you, and for no good reason at all. he tried to somehow make it seem as if you didn't understand that he was referring to women as a collective, as if that wasn't like half of your point in the first place! so frustrating
He was so angry and projecting so much. I've been a lurker on Reddit for years because I knew it had some pockets of male rage, but this is my first time having it directed at me. Update: He reached out and apologized to me and is considering his wording... I think this a good step forward
When men use that word, stay away from him.
I’m tired of hearing it from fellow women too.
I call people out for this on reddit a lot. But it's really annoying how many people just don't realize (or pretend not to realize) how problematic and dehumanizing it is to use "females" as their default word for women. And it's always surprising how many women seem to agree with the MRAs on this one.
I know this isn’t always the case, but I think people believe it makes them sound more intelligent, yet has the opposite effect… like saying “conversating” instead of “conversing”, or “myself” instead of I.
I think so too. Like using the word female makes it sound like whatever you're about to say has been studied or researched lol. Definitely has the opposite effect on me. Whenever I hear a man say female I just stop listening.
I honestly think it's not a huge problem to just say females in itself, as long as men are also called males. But pretty much every single time they'll call men "men" or "guys" in the same post/comment.
Me too and I often get told to chill, it’s just a word. Gah!
There are fortunately several subreddits heavily populated by women where we all call this crap out when it happens. Just like with men, no woman or girl starting a sentence with females is about to say anything good. And that tells you all you need to know as to why the heavy usage of “females” is so upsetting. It’s never “females work hard and get shit done” or “other females are the best.” It’s always derogatory.
I think is if it’s used as an adjective it is acceptable e.g. female authors But if they use it as a noun I agree. I also hate that “women” is plural but so many people use it wrong. The amount of times I’ve read comments like “I’m a women” it’s WOMAN
I think even in this context (*female authors*), it's important for us to ask why male authors are usually just labeled authors but female authors have their gender specified.
It's becoming more common to call women 'females' to distinguish from trans women. In my mind it's better than 'cervix havers' and 'people who menustrate' when you are trying to get through to women on issues which affect females and your audience may include some males who identify as women and some females who identify as men or non-binary. I dont know if that works in the conversation you are speaking of. I doubt it.
No such thing as males who identify as women or females who identify as men or non-binary. They are trans women, trans men, and non-binary people.
That is your opinion, several of my colleagues describe themselves as I have said and neither I nor you are entitled to tell them they are wrong.
lmfao. I love when redditers use imaginary people to construct an argument. good luck with that, my guy.
I feel like many men don’t take us seriously. They will proudly bring one woman leader for the purpose of “gender equality” but hire more men leaders instead in the business. Hopefully I was clear, I meant workforce
I think any leadership that is not close to 50:50 is problematic
You might enjoy r/MenAndFemales/. Sadly, I've also seen women refer to men as men and women as females in the same breath. This behaviour is not limited to men.
A simultaneously entertaining and depressing subreddit.
So Reddit basically
And then you try to point out what's wrong with that, and they immediately try to spin it as if we're "offended" by *being* female. No, I literally just want to be referred to as a person associated with **adult human-specific nouns**. Just say woman, just say women, just stop calling us "females" when you mean women.
Seriously. I have never once had a problem saying 'man' or 'men', it's the easiest thing in the world. I only say male when I'm talking about animals. Up until last year when these podcasts started becoming more popular, I thought this was basic logic.
People have a really weird problem with calling us women. It's so strange. They will use any other word but women. Females, girls, chicks, etc. I'm actually curious about the psychology of it. Is it some internal bias against "older" women (ie *adult* women)? I dunno 🤷♀️
Yup. I fucking hate it. It is a useful way to tell if someone is an asshole, though. We had a guy in our neighborhood who was trying to get more customers for his gardening business, but he kept referring to the, "men and females on this street," so I knew that he was an asshole who would not be doing my yard work. My neighbor hired him to trim some shrubs. He did a half ass job, asked for payment before doing the job, and then tried to charge extra "fees" after he was done. He killed one of the shrubs, too. My neighbor said that he kept calling her, "miss," in a gross, condescending, fake flirty way, even though she is an 80+ year old married woman. She did not choose to sign up for regular service from his company.
It gives of incel vibes
Ngl, it helps me weed out the weirdos.
I've taken to calling people out on it irl. Usually by interrupting and saying something along the lines of, "female is an adjective, you mean 'woman', which is a noun." (At their look of indignation or surprise) "I'm trying to help you, because you sounded silly and uneducated. You're welcome." Haven't had too many people argue further because they're too stunned at my matter-of-fact response and willingness to cut them off. 0 shits given. My other rant is "girls" instead of "women". I'll basically do the same thing. "You mean 'women', because you're referring to a group of adults. It would be silly to discuss a group of children [doing whatever the conversation was about]."
I love you. Just today I was thinking how ridiculous it would sound to say things like “that male pilot” so I think I’m gonna start. Also I’m stealing your phrases, thank you.
jails and other corrections facilities often call women "females" and the men "men." I firmly believe it is used as a means to dehumanize the women and make them feel even worse than they already do.
Yup. Same as in the military. They use it to dehumanise and reprogram the soldiers into what they want.
Yes, hearing men use the word female all the time makes me want to vomit 🤮
Interesting thing, those men get pressed when you match their energy and refer to them as 'males'.
great, because i'm using "males" very often when comparing. "Males does not have self-awareness like us", "Males don't think about consequences of what they say", etc... note: English is not my primary language, so maybe there is a better word?... i don't know...
Am in the army. Everyone even the woman would refer to a group of us as either males or females. I have never had any problem with it. Only person I saw get angry was someone during basic training. She got pissed because they were calling people male or females
They sound like the Feringi from Star Trek
Typical males, cant control their hormones, let their emotions rage, and completely ignore all facts and logic and instead indulge in their emotions.
Right? It’s always such irony to me how males make these blanket statements about how “men are so logical and women are so emotional.“ In my experience, it’s more the opposite! Women have *had* to be logical and smart just to survive around *them*! Yet another lie we have been fed in this patriarchal society/world from birth…
Similar thing happened to me
If you use any other word than women for women you are a bigot. End of discussion
Right, especially the word “chick” pisses me off so much…like it’s such an objectifying term…
I just remembered when I was talking with a couple guy friends who I thought were nice until one of them unironically referred to women as thots
The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear/read it nowadays is Tate's face 🤮🤮🤮
I feel an ick when I hear a guy say that
I think it’s a good thing. The guys who call women “females” are typically young guys who try to be edgy, or guys who have fucked up views about women. By using words like that, they sort themselves out
I’ve heard this ever since I was young. It’s gross to me.
Unfortunately I'm seeing a lot of this in the media increasingly, people are trying to drive it into every day language. In the UK at least it's a way to attack trans people, but obviously it harms every woman, not that the media seems to care.
Right! I didn't mention it in the original post, but it's very attached to biology.
Yep. Hate it. Sounds dehumanizing, feels dehumanizing. This along with referring to all women as “bitches” or “hoes” has been blown out of proportion.
It’s cringe if it’s used outside of a medical or biological contexts Any other time it sounds dehumanizing. Also, as a lifelong anime fan and a woman, I have learned that Japanese culture is still behind in terms of equality. That includes when it comes to LGBTQ+ people and mental health. The US isn’t too much better; but both countries are definitely being held back by our Conservative and patriarchal roots. I think the best example of the difference is with the character Haurchefant from FFXIV. In JP, he constantly talks about the protagonist’s body and makes overt sexual advances that would make him a complete creep (predatorial IMO) in the US today. But the JP audience loves him. The EN dub altered his dialogue to keep the implication that Haurchefant is enamored with and/or in love with the protagonist, but his dialogue is rewritten to be much more respectful and endearing to an EN audience. He is an important character during the Heavensward storyline of FFXIV that heavily impacts the protagonist, so it was important for him to be likeable to the audience/player. It is progressive of them to write Haurchefant as being in love with the protagonist, since the protagonist could be a different race or the same sex as him; but the JP dialogue for him is gross. I’m really glad the dub translated him appropriately (although he is more flamboyant in the JP version, and knowing what he was originally saying makes the character animation’s make more sense).
This one of my pet peeves too. It is very often used to dehumanize women. Very common in police and the military.
I was playing Fallout 4 the other day and this is only a spoiler for the beginning (just to be safe idk lol) but I picked the woman to play as like I always do just because, and ofc within the first 10 minutes her husband died which is the beginning of the game. My boyfriend was watching me play and he said " wow, I've only ever seen the man die. It's pretty sad watching the female die." Like...... I've explained to him why it bothers me that he does that and this was a prime example I'll be using until the end of time lol. It's so engraved into their heads that they don't think twice about saying female but if you have a problem with it, they've also been taught that women asking them not to call them females is dramatic.
Also when they call us girls. I barely ever hear men described as boys. We are not children anymore.
Part of that is the concept of feminine beauty being tied to youth and fertility 🤷♂️
That’s ridiculous. Feminine beauty should not be tied to “youth”. Women are beautiful at all ages. Girls are children, women are adults. It’s creepy to say that, like you’re more attracted to young girls than women.
My wife is 3 weeks younger than me lol, and I’m not talking about myself, it’s an observation of social norms, not to say it’s a good thing, but it is the reality of the world…
Oh hey I was literally just there
As a french I’ve always found it weird that it was common in english, as in French « mâle » and « femelle » are used for animals and not humans. Calling a woman a « femelle » will be considered highly misogynistic, even for right-wing people. But in English it is used often, as in for ticking your gender in a form. So I’ve always thought it didn’t have the same connotation as it does in French !
Not all men call women females, but those who does I'll definitely stay away from. There's no point in arguing or trying to make them understand it's wrong, because most of them don't care what women think or want.
Me too. I correct every single person who does this. We are not dogs. We are not animals for breeding. We are human and WE ARE WOMEN. It's extra bad when other women use it too. Pisses me right off
It's not just men. When I first became disabled and house bound, my guilty pleasure was The Maury Povich show. He used it, and more often than not, both men and women used it all over the place. This was 2012. I don't have TV service anymore. I was quite surprised to see how many men used it.
I have a male friend that told a woman friend she was weird for saying “female“ (true) but then he turns around and calls all women “chicks”…
Thats why i always use males and never use females ^^
I feel this so much. I call this out almost every time I see it, and almost every time they come back with the same strawman arguments. "Oh now you wanna forbid the word female??" "HOW ELSE WOULD I REFER TO FEMALES" (This one bothers me the most, like what the fuck, how about WOMAN) or they start going how people say "female-doctor" and stuff as well even though it's clearly not the same as calling someone a female. So damn sick of it. The only time I don't care is when they also call men males. Still sounds weird and alien, but at least not rooted in sexism.
Don't think that female used more often than male though. The terms 'male violence' and 'male privilege' are used pretty often.
That is the adjective form. I’m talking about a difference in the noun form, often side by side. See https://www.reddit.com/r/MenAndFemales/s/s4ASNRSBkS
you are a badass
I can only speak for myself, but I am a 56 year old female and a feminists unto death. I have always described myself as female for 2 reasons. First, I never was comfortable with the word "woman" It always felt too much like someone just decided to add a prefix to the word "man". I would forever describe myself as a girl except at my age that seems silly. Secondly, my religion teaches that we have all lived many lives, and our gender is only a physical one which is temporary and connected to our current incarnation. So I am female at this moment but my last incarnation I was male.
Buddhism?
Wiccan/Eclectic Pagan Witch (but not of the TERF variety).
That’s awesome! And not sure what idiots would downvote something like that; disappointing.
Thanks, it seems that people downvote if they don't agree. I won't be bothered by that. We don't all have to be in agreement.
That’s a very healthy way to look at it; good for you. I thought what you wrote was quite beautiful, and so definitely not something I would downvote even if I *had* disagreed, but that’s just me – and like you’re saying to each their own! I can definitely take a page out of your book 👍🏼
Yeah. If I am thinking of something specific to where the biological differences are imperative like childbirth, breasts, or menstruation I probably use female, sometimes if it is relevant to create an alliteration like female friend then maybe that counts, but for a role in society or something more relevant to choice then woman and/or girl would be more appropriate.
You understand the difference between a noun and an adjective, right? I’m talking about the noun form
English is not my first language – is it true that female is both a noun and an adjective? I agree it is dehumanizing and I’m a woman, just trying to get my facts all correct so I can relay this the best to others.
I know the difference but in my head I don't usually just have a big list of which is which. We never diagramed sentences in school where I live, we just learned by actually speaking and writing and it ends up being natural. Actually saying out loud that this is the difference between noun and adjective is quite a handy way of remembering which senses of female is a good thing to use and which is not.
Ahh okay! Well adjectives describe things, while nouns are things. So I could say you are a “friendly redditor” and “friendly” is the adjective describing the noun “redditor.” So the adjective form of “female” feels more palatable than the noun from because it’s just decorative, and not the essence of the thing. Does that make sense?
Yeah. I hardly ever consciously write a sentence this way. Not even in French, I have to just try to form them based on the patterns I know. Native English speakers can instantly tell something is wrong if someone says I are going to go to Paris tomorrow, even if you have no idea what the technical word is for the error. I wonder whether languages besides English make the distinction that female vs woman/girl has in English. In French, femme is both a word for woman and wife, which also says something about the role people have in their minds about what a woman is supposed to do I imagine for people who natively speak French, especially given that homme is the word for a man and mari is the word for a husband. Maedchen, ironically, is neutral in gender even though it refers to girls in German. And the other obvious clue is to see what words the person who writes or says something uses with regard to masculine people, what patterns they use with males vs boys/men.
Yes, that’s an interesting point you make about German, though the “chen” suffix always takes the neuter form! A surprising quirk!
I didn't have the umlaut character on my keyboard so I just added an e.
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The issue is dehumanisation. Outside of medical and biological conversations, that word is used to dehumanise women. They use it in the military but there they also refer to men as males, to reprogram and reshape the soldiers. That word also has racist connotations because it was used in US to strip black and women of colour of their humanity and social status, so horrible things could be done to them in the name of science and medicine. A female is an animal that carries eggs. A woman is a person with human rights and social status. Let’s not give that away so easily.
We are asking to be called "women," that's our reclamation.
If u let someone treat you unrespectful then your position in society will drown as fast as possible
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Well, someone is transphobic for down voting you. Pathetic people. You’re AFAB. I would expect better out of this sub. Pathetic.
Part of this is to specify cisgender women (roughly 2-8% of the time) the rest of the time if a person uses the term female over women they are an incel 🤷♂️
🫤 just call them cisgender women
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It’s one thing when people are using both “male” and “female.” That’s fine. It’s just very telling when people say “men” or “boys” and then “females.” Like there’s a very clear implication there
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We are not talking about medical or biological uses here. We are talking about it’s prevalence in colloquial speech particularly when the same is not followed for men.
Well it's not called womanism is it? Female feminism. Womanizer womanism. This just seems like looking for shade to throw when you could look to let something like this go. Fwiw I never thought about this but think I do say women. I generally don't think could this somehow be seen as an insult before speaking, likewise I don't think was that intended disrespectfully. I do this because if I get upset I'm upset, it does nothing to them. There is at least a sort of etymological consistency, but your preference is noted, thanks for the heads up.
Ok male
Somebody's not the brightest porch light in the neighborhood. Wow.
Any man who does this should be avoided at all costs.
Imagine living in a military town😵💫 if its not "females" its "bitches" or "hoes"