After this “fun” little catastrophe of a thread concerning the use of the word “female”, looking at the comment section, it’s painfully obvious that the majority of Lemmy’s userbase are men. That’s not a generalization, that’s a literal fact.
“It’s just a word!”, “Maybe English isn’t their first language!”, and “Overact much?” seem to be the most common replies.
So let’s do what should have been done in the first place and ask women their opinion:
What do you think of the word “female” being used? Especially in the context of the linked post in question? When is the use of the word appropriate vs. not appropriate?
EDIT: I think the post linked got taken down. Good.
In the context of the OOP I think it’s obnoxious, but people who baldly objectify women tend to be obnoxious, so I can’t say I’m surprised. I wish they’d knock it off.
“Female” is appropriate as an adjective: I need a female hose adaptor or My primary care doctor is female or Female cats don’t spray the way male cats do. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any case in which “female” should be used as a noun - except I guess it’s common in healthcare and law enforcement (though still grammatically incorrect).
It seems like “woman” is a hard word to use for some people. I’m not sure why. This also gets into the “woman” vs “girl” thing, which in my view is much more demeaning than “female.” We’re not children for fuck’s sake!
I should mention that some women aren’t bothered by “female” or “girl,” which is completely their prerogative.
Absolutely! These examples are absolutely unoffensive in their context. I take no issue with that.
It’s when people defend its usage as a noun where I take issue, and when others use “It’s just a word!” to dismiss concerns about it. Yes, it’s just word! It’s the context that matters!
“Girl” is a entirely different matter, but I guess it comes down to individual preference of the person being referred to. However, I personally don’t love it, and view it as a very outdated word to use with grown adult women. There’s a lot of nuance behind it, definitely.
It’s funny, because in German, you can’t really do the equivalent to “females”, but some men go to the opposite extreme and call women “Damen” (roughly equal to “ladies”). They tend to present this as being meant to be polite and flattering but it always rubs me the wrong way. Partly because it’s often used by men with questionable opinions about women. And partly because I want to be seen as just a normal woman not some dainty, elegant, always polite picture of perfection.
Though women seem to be divided on whether they mind it or not. I just don’t get what’s so hard about using “women”, especially if you used “men” in the same sentence (or would use it if it was addressed to men). You don’t have to either talk about them like you would about a female animal or like we’re all some unattainable beings.
A German friend of mine whom I met through a language class also talked to me about the outdated use of “Fraulein” when talking/referring to women. I was not super familiar with the German language, so it was definitely interesting!
Woman has its roots in the word/phrase “Wife-man” and had various spellings. Just fyi
Removed by mod
Can’t imagine why you would be accused of being an incel after belittling issues that women often face.
Well, it was before that, so your timeline is off. I was accused of it because “not everyone seems to agree with your stance.”
For the record, I happen to agree with the person I replied to so I guess we’re both incels.
I get it, to a degree, but coming into a discussion about the issue of dehumanizing language towards women to talk about how you mocked a woman you think is being unreasonable is a bad look.
Was she being unreasonable? I don’t know. Maybe. But we can’t really say, as we weren’t there.
My initial reply was admittedly a bit hostile, and I do apologize for that, but you have to understand that this is not the way to go about discussing this issue.
Calling me an “incel” right back does not help the matter.
All due respect, at least 8 other people in this community also found it humerous. Humor, being subjective, cannot please everyone all the time unfortunately. You may not have found it funny and that’s ok, but it isn’t objectively wrong or some such nonsense.
I apologize for calling you an incel right back as well, but contrary to your claim it looks like it did help, now we’re even lol, you call me unnecessarily, I call you unnecessarily in return, we both apologize, all’s well. Besides, I used “if then” logic, “if I’m an incel, then you are also one because we actually agree” but by the same coin, “if not, we aren’t.”
Congratulations, I think you just proved sexism doesn’t exist. We can finally move on. What a happy day!
Finally, I was so sick of sexism.
Good luck with that.
Thanks!