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.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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Anything can be offensive in the corresponding context.
I mean, I didn't know "orange" could be offensive, but then Trump showed up.
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?
It's dehumanizing. Use woman, girl, person.
Everything is offensive to someone.
I personally would always prefer saying boy girl man woman over male and female. Whener I first saw it used it was always in a negative context like "young black male" in regard to some crime to give the opposite example. Just like in French I think it's weird to refer to humans with male and female, although accurate of course, as I would only expect it in for animals.