Well, thank you for clarifying at least. I'm not changing the wording. Let me be clear, I'm definitely not blaming you for being helpful - I appreciate at least knowing. However, if someone reads my post supporting and valuing women and the thing they comment on is the word "female" as if that makes me an incel misogynist, then I don't really care. I wrote a post in this thread about the radicalization of men, and I used the word "male" 4 times. 31 upvotes, no downvotes (at time of posting) and no one had issue with "male".

I support women and I never ever use the actually pejorative terms, but I'm not stopping using the word female. Incels use the word "women" too all the time btw. There's even the famous coffee meme that uses the word "women" and I hate it because I'm a gamer and it's always used in gamer communities to mock women.

Edit: After thought and given how people seem upset, I won't post on this forum anymore. I'm sure there are some who will think "Bye - no loss" and it's their right to do so and tell me so if they want. I don't like that my obvious intent was overridden by the use of a very common word and it feels like a minefield I'm not interested in navigating. That "female" is an ok adjective but a really offensive noun just seems odd, especially when the equally-misused "woman" is fine. Hateful people say words hatefully and if you let them claim words there won't be any left. I'd never hear something like "males are being pulled to the extreme right" and wonder if they mean humans (aka dehumanizing). In a lifetime spent with female friends and decades on boards like Reddit and Lemmy this is the very first time it's been an issue. I have other thoughts but they're not helpful so I'll just say adios.

P.S. I'll keep on supporting women in other places. I believe strongly that the only ethical position is that a person be judged by their character, and determined fit for any role by their capabilities as opposed to genitalia, ethnicity, preferred sexuality, etc. Regardless of people telling me they know my beliefs better than I do, I actually know what I believe - biases of all kinds must be fought, especially now.