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Is "female" offensive? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 9 months ago by Trincapinones 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] 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah it's tricky. Using "female" as a noun in a non-biological context is often used by incels and misogynists in order to dehumanise women. Whereas there isn't the same trend of certain groups using "male" to dehumanise men, or at least I've never heard of it happening in real life.

In a vacuum, both would be the same, but because there is a much larger trend of using "female" to dehumanise women than using "male" to dehumanise men, it's not a true double-standard.

And as long as you're not being a dick, especially if English isn't your native language, then people will know what you mean. But if you are consciously trying to make an effort, then don't use "female" and "male" as nouns to refer to someone's gender.