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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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Lots to unpack here.
First: female/male vs women/men. Female/male is usually used in clinical settings and for animals. Using female/male is implicitly dehumanizing. And I think this is a common trait of most romance languages: macho and hembra, for instance, are used primarily for animals in Spanish. Tell us your language and I'm guessing someone can explain it in your language.
Second: Nouns can function as adjectives: race horse, history teacher, ticket office. I think "woman writer" also implies that the writer is writing for a female audience.
Third: "Female artist" is actually OK in my book because it's used an an ADJECTIVE and the really offensive use is "females" as a noun. "Do you see those females over there by the bar?" But I think it can be a case of overcorrection to avoid "female" as adjective.
There's a funny one that I heard: "lady senator." So dainty and refined.
Fourth: MALE is the default in patriarchal societies. If you refer to someone without specifying gender, the assumption is that they're male (and let's face it: probably also white).
In my language (Slovenian) all nouns are gendered, so we don't really use adjectives to gender nouns. And yes, I agree, saying females or males does sound dehumanizing.
Thanks for the explanation!
In Swedish too, but curiously we use them chaotically, somewhat based in traditional gendered jobs but not always. A lot of jobs exist in both feminine and masculine forms but are mostly used in one or another unless making a point. Others exist in only one masculine sounding form but they are really used as neutrum.
For example: Skådespelare/skådespelerska (actor/actress) are used as expected. Konstnär/konstnärinna (male/female artist) is very rarely used in feminine regardless of gender of the artist. Läkare (doctor) exists only in one form so if you want to say "female doctor" you have to say "kvinnlig läkare". Meanwhile skötare/sköterska (male/female nurse) is more complicated because all nurses in hospitals are i feminin form, but in mental health they are in masculine form, and elsewhere I don't even know.
I believe those are called attributives.
I see you and raise: gerund.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gerund