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That was actually funny.
Kudos.
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I checked the Acronym and Glossary topic and found this, it says donât use the word and then points to this topic.
Female(s) - unless youâre describing animals or filling out a form, use woman/women please. Better yet, evaluate whether its necessary to use at all. Exception: when used in conjunction with male. See also
The title includes âand why you shouldnâtâ but so far no one has said why it shouldnât be used, just donât.
I donât think Iâve ever described a woman as female unless it was a multiple choice check box on a medical form for my wife or mom.
Can someone please explain the why part?
Fe(II)male or Fe(III)male?
Oxidation state is very important!
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Why, do you have trouble taking our word for it without bullet points?
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Ironic man?
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Ferrous Man and Ferric Man! The Iron Twins!
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Heâs a total wheel!
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For anyone who feels confused, an article with this paragraph was fairly easy to discover:
Robin Lakoff, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, says that female has always been a bad word, âmaybe itâs just now becoming more explicitly recognized.â A female can be any species, Lakoff argues, but only a human can be a woman, so to refer to a woman as a female âis to subtly downgrade her to a lower mammalian status, rather like calling a guy an âape,ââ Lakoff says. That said, âto be able to call a guy an ape is possible only when he is a particular kind of guy â clumsy, brutish, etc. But any woman can be called, disparagingly, a âfemaleâ just because of the chromosome thing. Same with the very bad c -word, vs. what ought to be parallel, prick , or dick . Any woman can get those words applied to her by the average misogynist, and makes no reference to any specific qualities other than femaleness. But to be one of the male words, a guy has to be obnoxious.â
And before anyone else chimes in: yes, the article is about reclaiming the word female. In it the author says
allowing virtually every word that can be applied to women, except women , as negative we are helping men box us in with their âmale gazeâ of the English language
But on my trip around the internet just now that article was the only place someone was saying âmaybe the word could be usedâ and the rest was either misuse or descriptions thereof.
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Brilliant break down for those who have trouble âgetting it.â
Thanks!
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No, that would be Ferris, Man!
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I agree that if women do not want to be described by that word, I/we/men/anyone should refrain from using it butâŚ
That post, How did World War I impact women?, is under the category Strong Female Characters.
Is that an exception or is it different? If itâs either one, thatâs kind of why I asked the question.
Whatâs wrong with âbecause women donât like itâ?
And why does it not occur to some folks that it is the same dynamics as âWhy canât I say the N-word?â or the R-word, or any of those words?
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Too easy, too much like âright.â
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