“It is unfair how I am treated,” he said, “the moment I see a female and say ‘hello there female’ they always leave after saying something. I don’t know what they said because I wasn’t listening but they are being very rude.”
“I don’t understand what it is that makes women seem uncomfortable around me... likely they are just intimidated to be in the presence of a real alpha man like me. I don’t blame them for that.”
Wait, where's the part where he calls a woman a *fat whore who can keep chasing Chad but she better not come crying to him when she turns 30 and hits the wall?
*about 75% of this is just a reworded comment I saw today on an article about dating in my city.
I've seen some be upset about it used in "male and female" context. I think they just misunderstood why some don't like the use of the term or didn't stop to think about it.
It's not even clinical, it's used as a shortening of "female patient" or "female subject" or whatever, especially when lady or woman (which refer only to adult female humans) aren't universally clear, but people who use it as a noun outside of those contexts are just using nonstandard English, and generally socially inacceptable nonstandard English at that.
I will never understand the drama over the word "female".
I set up a doctor's appointment the other day, and I was asked if I had a doctor preference. I responded and said "I'd prefer a female doctor." According to the internet, apparently I should have asked for a "woman doctor".
Reversing the gender, I'd be asking for either a "male doctor" or a "man doctor". I will literally never use the phrase "I'd prefer a man doctor, please." Because it has weird connotations, and doesn't even roll off the tongue as well.
So because I believe in male/female equality, I am necessarily required to treat them the same, with similar varieties of words.
So what's the problem? Give me a reason why I should use the less technical versions of words that invoke social-gender-stereotypes when I want to avoid all of that entirely.
You've been told (probably at length) what women in general prefer to be called. It's probably even been explained to you. Your feigning ignorance about why is just saying that you don't find those answers satisfactory.
You're free to call women "females" and you can justify it however you want, just like I'm free to allow absolutely zero people who refer to me as "female" (outside of very limited clinical circumstances) to touch my tits.
My understanding is that its less about the word itself and more about the usage in contrast to how the same person refers to men. Males will be men, dudes, bros, etc. but they'll only refer to women as females. Usually with a thinly veiled distain. "All these dudes just hanging out but the FEMALES are fighting." or some shit.
As a sentient homo sapien, I find myself inexorably drawn to the olfactory stimuli emitted by the female of our species, which invoke an unparalleled sensory euphoria within the neural pathways of my encephalon. 🧐
I find there's nothing better than harvesting the scent of a female in a tank, with flower petals of course, and then scrapings it off thier skin. Someday I hope to use it in all five chords of a fragrance.
That's what we were instructed to use to refer to a subset of our platoon-mates while working, in those rare cases where it made a difference. One of my DS, an MP from Halifax, would absolutely tear a strip off you if she heard you say 'girl' or 'woman', in barely comprehensible English out from under that scary red Beret, and you knew the woe was coming.
I used to use "guys and gals" in a work setting, but then I hired an employee who identified as non binary (hope I'm using the right word here) and I didnt want them to feel excluded. I started using "all" or "yinz" instead and it stuck. At this point I just don't assume pronouns unless someone tells me what theirs are.
It really really rubs most of us the wrong way. Yet, for whatever reason, stupid men are taught that it is ok to call us "females". It is like we are corpses. Things. Not even people.
Even if someone called me a "male" constantly it would kind of freak me out. They are theoretically interchangeable, but male or female just comes off less "human" I guess. If they choose to only ever say male or female then it makes you wonder if they literally perceive you as inhuman.
I mean I used to do it tons in the army, that was the accepted way to refer to the women. Like "hey where is the females bunk I need to drop something off to sgt jones"
I never meant it disrespectfully, can't speak for anyone else though.
I have such a weird take on this, due to being in the military for so long. We absolutely do refer to one another as "males" and "females".
Ie. "There was a female SSgt that was really helpful in customer service" or "I had to remind a male Soldier to put on his cover when he left the building" or "I had a female troop once".
However, I try really hard when I'm speaking to a non-military member to switch up my phrasing. Sometimes I still slip up, and I gotta be like "shit, sorry, I mean that woman cashier over there" or whatever it is that I'm talking about.
I will say though, I do distinctly remember having that conversation during basic training, and fucking hating being referred to as "female" in the beginning, and that thought being shared amongst my flightmates. I can still hear the TIs shouting from across the parking lot: "GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW, FE-MALE!" Ugh.
It was just 16 years ago now, so "female" has become normalized.
In your first examples, you are using female as an adjective. A female troop, a female Sargent, a male soldier. That's usually fine. Even "that female cashier over there" is probably fine. However if you say "that female over there" or like you pointed out, "get over here right now, female" or really any other instance where female is used as a noun instead of an adjective, that's where it becomes gross. It's all about adjective vs noun. Adjective: usually fine. Noun: usually not.
Yeah after I posted the comment, I was reading through other people's, and someone pointed this exact difference out. This take makes full sense to me!!!
I don't understand. My girlfriend calls women "females".
So long as you're not using it in a disrespectful way, there's no reason why women can't be called what they are. What's next? Getting upset because I call it a vagina instead of a "pussy"?
This is interesting to me because, as a dude in his 40s, I grew up with adults (and even cartoons) saying 'woman xxxx' being the pejorative (i.e. damn woman drivers!). It's been weird to seem to see this flip.
It's generally the difference between using it as a descriptor, and a noun. Noun bad.
Compare "I really like watching the female football game" and "I really like watching the women's football game"
"Female" isn't trans-inclusive, but people aren't going to look at you weird either way you say it.
Now compare that to:
"I really like watching the females play football." and "I really like watching the women play football."
"Females" here makes you sound like you're getting sexual gratification from watching the players, or that you see them as nothing more than a vagina, "women" sounds like you might like the game.
Those guys are the rapiest ones. It's disingenuous to act like the types of men who call women 'females' aren't the same guys who neg, space invade and spike drinks.
Ok I will totally admit that, especially when during DEI discussions or other similar meetings, when my brain is about to say "woman" I can freak out and over-correct and I have absolutely said "females".
I used to say "boys and girls", even my female wife says "girls" is fine, but 1 time in 2009 I got yelled at for using "girls" and I have never recovered.
Saying something that may be perceived as offensive and then later realizing you probably should have said it differently is totally different from saying the same thing unabashedly with zero self-awareness
Sometimes it feels awkward. I'm getting used to it but for some reason it's unnatural. My women friends in real life also find it weird to say women, they also say females.
Some of the guys I know seem to use it because they think it's a more PC way of saying it. One of them is married with kids who he has a good relationship with.
Back on reddit I remember getting downvoted a lot for that time I suggested a guy referring to women as "females" was a red flag. Glad I'm not alone in thinking that.
But you can be female and not be a woman, and be a woman and not be a female, am I correct? I've never used the term "female" to describe anyone, but I kind of thought it might be a bit more politically correct? I suppose not.
I write it females because I don't like the look of the word woman, it's not a sexist thing it just never looks right to me and I always worry I did it wrong.
In general, female is an adjective. It can be used as a noun, but generally shouldn't be, at least when talking about humans. So you can say "my female colleague" or "a woman I work with". You can say "the female mind" or "a woman's brain." You can say "a panel of female postal workers" or "a panel of women who work for the post office." If you stick to the adjective/noun rule, you'll come off far less offensive/gross sounding. Hope this helps.
Image of the introductory coursework for people wanting to learn English.
It's crazy how the eldritch amalgamation that is the English language can have zero rules, yet a dozen unwritten ones of what you can and can't say. Good luck threading the needle if you aren't up to date with the latest cultural evolution in America. Add on top that the kids keep inventing sentences worth of new acronyms.
I get what group of people the article is poking fun at, one of them is on proud display in the comment section. Though I still feel people should have a better understanding that as the Internet's lingua franca you'll encounter people from a wide range of backgrounds, and their grasp of the language and culture will vary.
I can certainly see it being a struggle for non native English speakers or English speakers from other cultures. Referring to women as females is one of those things thats accurate according to the language, but a lot of bigots have figured out that they can use common words as slurs and people are slower to catch on. Female is unfortunately one of those words; it evokes big "I see you as livestock" energy
Yeah. I think a fair few people misunderstand the intent of my comment. I agree that the connotation of "female" makes it a word one should be conscious about its usage.
I was strictly speaking of how non native speakers of English may struggle with keeping up with what's socially correct English according to the wider Internet culture.
This, so much. In my language, even as little kids, they called us “males and females”, very rarely “boys and girls”.
Native speakers need to understand that not everyone knows all the connotations that come from every english word. Especially considering some of them are vastly different based on whether it’s used in USA, UK or Australia.
TL;DR, most people are reasonable and can tell the difference. We cool.
People where English is not their first language get a pass. There is usually a very telling inflection when someone says "females" and means it in the bad way. I would rather help people with their English and explain that it is best to not say it that way, than get upset over our language being unnecessarily complicated.
The context of how female is said is even more confusing. Best way I think is if you are referring to a group of people or a specific person as female(s), that is bad. If you are referring to something about our gender, a description, or something impersonal, then that is fine. "Female anatomy.", "I hate being female.", "There was a female guard at the station."
While it is puts me on edge when I hear it (in that bad context), it isn't like they called me a cunt or something really foul. It is usually just an immediate red flag that we may be dealing with an incel, but let's see where this goes. Usually doesn't take long to get a confirmation on how they really meant it.
What issue? I'm not even directly talking about the usage of the word female. I'm talking about the lack of understanding a lot* of English speakers show when "others" use their language.
To use male/female as an example, my language doesn't even have direct translation for male and female, we only have the equivalent to man/woman when speaking of humans. I could totally understand that someone who aren't terminally online may be confused of when to use woman and when to use female, especially as female may seem more formal and thus be confused with being the polite option, just as an example.
I feel like the last paragraph made it pretty clear? Most people on the internet doesn't have English as their native language, expecting all those people to understand the constantly shifting connotation of every word feels rather ignorant/ethnocentric.
It's a stupid article because the guy in the picture is so hot no one would care what the fuck he would say. His words could be completely incoherent and everyone would still want to have sex with him.
It figures this "funny" article came from Australia, the worst country in the world. One day I hope AI finds technology to sink that that horrible island and all of it's koalas kangaroos and sexy resettled British convicts to the bottom of the ocean. The article is a good reminder to people from Australia that just because you're extremely sexy doesn't mean you're extremely funny.
aussies are some of the most congenial people ive ever met. their culture (from my brief experience) is very egalitarian. it was such a nice change from all the individualistic crap here in america.
It figures this "critical" comment came from lemmy.world, the worst instance in the fediverse. One day I hope AI finds technology to sink that that horrible instance and all of it's koalas kangaroos and sexy resettled reddit convicts to the bottom of the ocean. The comment is a good reminder to people from lemmy.world that just because you're extremely gay doesn't mean you're extremely witty.