Asklemmy

44151 readers

1377 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

251

Is "female" offensive? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 9 months ago by Trincapinones to c/[email protected]

281 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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 ^^

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

For me, As non native English speaker too, its aggressive .

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Lol what the fuck?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You don't accept that we are not animals ? Female is offensive and used by sigmas and incels 💁

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I interpreted your initial comment as calling OP’s English out, tbh.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, did an edit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I’m sorry English is awful, but it’s much clearer now :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Incels using a word offensively does not make the word inherently offensive, and by letting them reframe the word in their favor you're giving them power they do not deserve.

When using male/female to denote biological sex, the words should not be offensive. "Were you born malr or female" in a medical settting can be vital to treatments, for example.

Generally, though, people ought to be using gender.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah agree. Its relative to my feelings