Im far from “woke” but damn it creeps me out when people use female instead of woman, not that the word itself is creepy but because all the people ive seen use it were massive creeps
I’m not saying which is taught earlier, I’m just saying that people may get confused by the difference and use term native speakers cosider derogatory.
I got curious after reading this, and had a mess around in a translator with various words used to address ladies in different languages.
For french at least, “Woman” turned into “Wife”, but “Females” stayed the same. Assuming the translator I used is any good, I can see there why a french speaker would call a lady “Female” instead of “Woman”
I think entirely phonetically so struggle with spelling. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a word for this but I don’t know it. Some words like woman vs women really mess with me, because at least in my accent, the ending of the word doesn’t change, its the beginning of the word (which doesn’t change spelling). As a consequence I get them mixed up all the time in text. I switched to using female/male so I could consistently get the spelling right. Its extremely annoying that some redpill bullshit or w/e then co-opted the use of the word in some dehumanizing way.
Totally is BS. You could switch to lady/ladies. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but isn’t automatically being taken that way. Dunno if that helps you but if it doesn’t help directly then at least you could then remember that more letters means more people, so ladies is plural.
You could also go full gender-neutral and just use person/people. Doesn’t help if you need to specify they’re women, but I bet most times you wouldn’t actually need to do that.
That seems like it could be maybe a cultural thing, or maybe even how the same word can convey a very different feeling in another accent.
If someone pronounces Lady as “lāh dih” instead of “lay dee”, the former feels odd compared to the latter, at least to me anyway.
And then there’s also probably a stigma associated with the time period and circumstances in which a woman was referred to as a lady, which may also make it sound off when used today.
I think referring to women as females is far ruder though personally, “Female” feels like “an individual that is not a male”, but Lady feels more like “A woman” with more pizzazz, if we ignore its past connotations
As someone else in the thread mentioned, it is depersonalizing. The word female is used mainly in medical, scientific, or legal contexts. It can sound awkward or jarring when used outside of that, even when technically correct. The word woman could be used instead. Did the person in the OP deserve a permanent ban for it? Probably not
It’s not dehumanizing people are just hung up on pronouns in 2023. Guess what, most people outside of reddit or lemmy that you would bump into on the streets don’t give a shit about someone saying “female”, like they don’t even care a little bit or think anything of it.
Edit: do you guys get mad at your doctor when he hands you a form that asks gender: male or female? Lol get mad over nothing. It hasn’t been a problematic word until recent lol. Woman, a noun. Female, an adjective. Get off the Internet and talk to some normal people.
I was in the Navy, we got it drilled in our heads in Boot camp that we had to say Male and Female. Literally we would have to scream “MALE ON DECK” when entering a female’s berthing or the opposite when a Female entered a Male berthing.
Im far from “woke” but damn it creeps me out when people use female instead of woman, not that the word itself is creepy but because all the people ive seen use it were massive creeps
Ever heard of english being a second language?
I think “men” and “women” are taught waaaaay before “male” and “female”.
English is my second language and man and woman is taught earlier than male and female
I’m not saying which is taught earlier, I’m just saying that people may get confused by the difference and use term native speakers cosider derogatory.
Tbh my language is even more specific
I got curious after reading this, and had a mess around in a translator with various words used to address ladies in different languages.
For french at least, “Woman” turned into “Wife”, but “Females” stayed the same. Assuming the translator I used is any good, I can see there why a french speaker would call a lady “Female” instead of “Woman”
Same in Dutch and I believe German as well.
In german “Frau” can translate to woman or wife
Wait, why would you try to translate “femelle” instead of “femme” from french to English?
Am I missing something?
Femme is woman, not female
I think entirely phonetically so struggle with spelling. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a word for this but I don’t know it. Some words like woman vs women really mess with me, because at least in my accent, the ending of the word doesn’t change, its the beginning of the word (which doesn’t change spelling). As a consequence I get them mixed up all the time in text. I switched to using female/male so I could consistently get the spelling right. Its extremely annoying that some redpill bullshit or w/e then co-opted the use of the word in some dehumanizing way.
Totally is BS. You could switch to lady/ladies. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but isn’t automatically being taken that way. Dunno if that helps you but if it doesn’t help directly then at least you could then remember that more letters means more people, so ladies is plural.
You could also go full gender-neutral and just use person/people. Doesn’t help if you need to specify they’re women, but I bet most times you wouldn’t actually need to do that.
Ladies sounds like incel shit too
That seems like it could be maybe a cultural thing, or maybe even how the same word can convey a very different feeling in another accent.
If someone pronounces Lady as “lāh dih” instead of “lay dee”, the former feels odd compared to the latter, at least to me anyway.
And then there’s also probably a stigma associated with the time period and circumstances in which a woman was referred to as a lady, which may also make it sound off when used today.
I think referring to women as females is far ruder though personally, “Female” feels like “an individual that is not a male”, but Lady feels more like “A woman” with more pizzazz, if we ignore its past connotations
I mean, I was talking about the fedora-tipping incel image that comes with “m’lady”
“Men and fffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeemmmmaaaaaaallllles.”
Exactly this. People often use “female” because it’s a dehumanizing word.
How is it dehumanizing? Most humans are female.
As someone else in the thread mentioned, it is depersonalizing. The word female is used mainly in medical, scientific, or legal contexts. It can sound awkward or jarring when used outside of that, even when technically correct. The word woman could be used instead. Did the person in the OP deserve a permanent ban for it? Probably not
It’s not dehumanizing people are just hung up on pronouns in 2023. Guess what, most people outside of reddit or lemmy that you would bump into on the streets don’t give a shit about someone saying “female”, like they don’t even care a little bit or think anything of it.
Edit: do you guys get mad at your doctor when he hands you a form that asks gender: male or female? Lol get mad over nothing. It hasn’t been a problematic word until recent lol. Woman, a noun. Female, an adjective. Get off the Internet and talk to some normal people.
Only slightly more than half, but you’re technically right
I think for some it’s because they don’t want to say girl but they’re intimidated by women
Only when it’s men and females. Like, dude, if someone speaks like that you know they’re a huge incel
Yeah. It feels weird to say even ironically. Woman, lady, lass, bird, even girl wouldn’t have made this sound half as weird…
Though we are talking about a post of a guy trying way too hard to stare at a woman’s backside, so it was gonna be weird from the offset.
Was a permanent ban too much? Maybe, but I wouldn’t call anybody a snowflake for getting a weird vibe from the OP here
I was in the Navy, we got it drilled in our heads in Boot camp that we had to say Male and Female. Literally we would have to scream “MALE ON DECK” when entering a female’s berthing or the opposite when a Female entered a Male berthing.