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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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 ^^

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'd sneak a peek at some other league and do whatever they did.

When I say "avoid using 'female'" (specifically as a noun to mean "woman") it's not an absolute. The gist is just to not come off like a fedora-tipping twat. Sometimes it's used intentionally to objectify or demean "females" in general, or using the "woman/female" distinction as some sort of pointed transphobic shtick.

It's still a perfectly cromulent word as long as it doesn't get neckbeardy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You'd think so, but I have seen the opposite when discussing topics that were true for all ages.

Maybe I just tripped over the most vocal people who don't understand nuance, since one person actually said to use 'woman' to describe a six year old.