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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] 71 points 2 years ago (17 children)

And to go out of your way to avoid saying “woman” makes you sound like some kind of incel weirdo, and you don’t want that.

I'd just like to emphasise this. It's not that using a different term is intrinsically bad, it's just that the people who tend to do it are not cool and you don't want to look like you're associated with them.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    When I was growing up, saying woman was offensive, because it made people feel old. So we would say "girl". But now It's flipped. Saying "girl" makes people feel too young, apparently.

    I'm still kind of adjusting. The word "woman" still feels icky to me because I was berated for saying it as a kid.

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  • [+] -24 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    It's ridiculous that a perfectly fine word is seen as insult used by a certain type of people.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    It's ridiculous that a perfectly fine word is seen as insult used by a certain type of people.

    That’s how association works

    I can have the best and most lasting solution to a problem ever, but my company still won’t allow me to put “THE FINAL SOLUTION” in marketing copy.

    And they shouldn’t.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    The VP of product messaged me a couple weeks ago after some back and forth about some work. She asked if I had some time to talk about the final solution. I went "uhhhh so long as we don't call it that"

    I'm like 90% sure she had no idea why that phrase is reserved.

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  • [+] -14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    So you say ... The word describing a biological fact, and a national socialist euphemism for mass murdering millions of people are the same?

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    So you say ... The word describing a biological fact, and a national socialist euphemism for mass murdering millions of people are the same?

    Do you even hear yourself?

    Engage in good faith or sod off.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If it has negative connotations, it's not a perfectly fine word.

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  • [+] -43 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Meanwhile, you are perfectly ok with judging someone based uniquely on which term they tend to use? Oh my, mankind is really going down the drain…

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yes. Life is a game of trying to guess which people are full of shit. If they say "feeeemales" and then turn out to be fine, great, I'll probably give them a heads up not to do that.

    Was there a non-judgmental era I'm unaware of?

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago

    Yes. Language can show what sort of media people consume and the sorts of groups they socialize with, especially when it comes to the internet.

    If someone is using incel language, there will be a strong initial assumption they spend time within incel circles consuming toxic content like Andrew Tate and will remain under that assumption until proven otherwise. Sorry, not sorry?

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