• Madison420@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      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.

      • hakobo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        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.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          I just avoid it altogether and rephrase my use of “females” to be inoffensive but to be honest I don’t particularly get why it’s so offensive.

          • Bertuccio@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            Using “male” and “female” as nouns is offensive because it dehumanizes the subject and reduces them to their gender.

            A “woman” is inherently human – specifically an adult female human. By calling that person only “a female” you remove their humanity and maturity, leaving only their sex. This is why it’s so common for creepy types, and why it’s so creepy, because it betrays that only one of those three descriptors is important to them.

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              5 months ago

              It doesn’t dehumanize anyone though, male and female are the two most common sexes in humanity so it being either doesn’t disqualify you for humanity anymore than any other multi hyphenate.

              Also no woman isn’t specist in is etymology, its sexist technically we only take it as human because only a human can consent to enter into marriage.

              Wif = wife / man = mankind. Literally the wif of men, technically you aren’t even a woman if you aren’t married or at least capable of being married.

                • Madison420@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  That’s a non argument.

                  “You’re a bad person! How dare you ask a legitimate question in a respectful way!”

                  Rather than “x is because of y” or “I’m sorry I’m not sure I can answer that” but rather going out of your way to be cruel.

                  So fun question, how is the way you’re talking to me not dehumanizing.