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Please stop referring to women as "females" (READ OP)

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Persephone

Persephone

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Oct 25, 2017
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Mod Edit:
This is a sensitive topic. Discussion is welcome, but posts that dismiss the experiences of others, as well as drive-by posts simply reacting to the title will be actioned accordingly.

I see this everywhere and it really rustles my jimmies, but never more than when I see dudes say "men" and "females" in the same sentence. Really says a lot about how they view women. Shit's dehumanising as fuck. If you refer to women as females please consider: 1) thinking about why you do that and 2) not doing it anymore.

This has been a PSA.

[for further clarity, on adjectives vs nouns]:
Persephone said:
"she is female" ✔

"she is a female" ✘
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Nox Potens

Nox Potens

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
844
I have only ever heard one person do that, and he stopped after I had a conversation with him about it. He was a younger guy and a coworker at the time.
 
PhazonBlonde

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Seconded. It sounds like they're referring to women as like animals or something. It's a good way to know where that poster using 'females' is coming from and the type of social circle they have though (online or otherwise)
 
Rizific

Rizific

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Oct 27, 2017
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god damn, the term "female" is now offensive? did the dictionary definition change or something?
 
Deaf Spacker

Deaf Spacker

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Oct 26, 2017
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I know someone who uses 'women' and 'females' in the same conversation, I called him out on it yet he carried on.

Just use women or girls FFS.

Females makes me cringe inside.
 
Sirhc

Sirhc

Hasn't made a thread yet. Shame me.
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CALpssfUkAEWRGT.jpg
 
BDS

BDS

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The reason people do this is because subconsciously some men have this weird hang-up about referring to their adult female counterparts as "women." They can't call us "girls" (although many of them do anyway) because a "girl" is usually a young person, so they fall back on "females," which is weird as hell.

ahoyhoy said:
Your profile says "Female"
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Because it's an adjective, not a noun. Stay in school, kids.
 

Deleted member 1635

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%femalename

But yeah, it really does come across as gross to me these days in most usages.

BDS said:
The reason people do this is because subconsciously some men have this weird hang-up about referring to their adult female counterparts as "women." They can't call us "girls" (although many of them do anyway) because a "girl" is usually a young person, so they fall back on "females," which is weird as hell.
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Yep. It's like they want to use a diminutive, but know that "girls" is not acceptable.
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

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Oct 25, 2017
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Kinggroin said:
I've said male and female before, referring to human beings. Why is it bad, I don't understand.
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The thread's about referring to women as females in situations where you could've just used 'women' or as a noun, or just in a conversation where it sounds out of place or weird.
 
Metallix87

Metallix87

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Nerfgun said:
So female is only acceptable when paired with male? What about in its own? What about Feminism?
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Yeah, I'm not really getting this one, myself. I agree that it sounds weird when coupled with men instead of males, but I'm not sure if I agree with your conclusion that it dictates how one sees women, OP.
 
Quinton

Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
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PLEASE heed the OP. I effing hate this. Like they said, it speaks v o l u m e s more often than not. "The thing about females," I heard a coworker say last week, and I asked them to maybe not refer to over half the human population like either a.) science experiments or b.) Ferengi.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

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Oct 25, 2017
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Ever? I can certainly understand not being like "these females are terrible". But as a generic descriptor as well?
 
Kite

Kite

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"Toei and Bandai rumoured to announce first lead woman Kamen Rider" sounds a bit odd to me.
 
Haloid1177

Haloid1177

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Oct 25, 2017
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I struggle with this from a sentence standpoint. Like "women I work with" and "female coworkers" are the same thing, and I say "male coworkers" too. Is that weird? I dunno.
 
Arex

Arex

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Oct 27, 2017
12,501
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What's wrong with female and male? why is it dehumanizing? wiki says The word female comes from the Latin femella, the diminutive form of femina, meaning "woman", so female = woman anyway?

(English not my first language mind)

* although in conversation I don't really use male/female anyhow
 
thetrin

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Oct 26, 2017
7,643
Atlanta, GA
Who says this? That sounds so fucking weird. I just assume it's people who have never had any sort of interaction with a woman in their lives.
 

Deleted member 5745

Account closed at user request
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This is a thing to be upset about now? Grammatical issues in conversation aside, this seems like a stretch.

The more you know, though. Just never knew this was a thing.

EDIT: It clicked, I can see how now.
 
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PhazonBlonde

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ahoyhoy said:
Your profile says "Female"
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hwarang said:
I don't see it everywhere and you're overthinking this.
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American Eskimo said:
What if you work in academia and that's all we do.

70% of female respondents stated that...
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Rizific said:
god damn, the term "female" is now offensive? did the dictionary definition change or something?
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Well that didn't take long.... I wonder how many people ITT complaining they can't use female and that we're too sensitive about it are also the ones complaining when people use words like "yikes", "toxic", "problematic" and "gross?"
 
Stowaway Silfer

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Alethiometer said:
I agree. It sounds way too formal for any regular conversation.
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Formal? To me, it comes across as equating the woman/girl you're talking about to an animal. Because it's when talking about your dog or whatever that you say "X is a male/female"
hwarang said:
I don't see it everywhere and you're overthinking this.
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I don't see it every day or anything but I do see it from time to time. A random example that has always stuck with me is someone from Black Eyed Peas being asked about Fergie's time in the group and he said something like "We've always a featured female in each album" or something like that and it rubbed me the wrong way.
 
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