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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] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

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"

[–] spikespaz 1 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Why is the third bad

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

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."

[–] spikespaz 1 points 8 months ago

See I don't think that is wrong either. Technically accurate words are valid substitutes for orthodox ones, especially in a comedic sense.

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