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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 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] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Female as an adjective is inoffensive everywhere, but you will run into problems in some contexts because its definition is currently in flux and different people will mean different things by it.

Female as a noun has the same changing definition deal, and also some online misogynists use it as a pejorative. It isn't one, but they use it as one. As a corollary, some others on the internet have chosen to be offended by the term.