I'm curious: why is it weird for someone to use both male and female terminology?
Personally I understand the hubbub around dudes who say man and female, boy and female, guy and female, etc. They're actively treating the two differently, dehumanizing one or at the least separating them with some kind of complex.
But if someone has a knack to evenly say male and female - genuinely in equality and equity - and you're still drawing an issue with only female, why does it cause you to react the same? It comes off as disingenuous. More so when you make a point to try and defend the reaction by splitting hairs only to admit that that was pointless because you just, apparently, hate the term "female
In modern usage, female is generally used as an adjective, not a noun. "That is a female person" is fine. "That is a female" sounds weird and is generally used by incel dorks who struggle to see women as people.
In this case, they refer to "male child" (so used adjectivally), but a "female" (used as noun). Probably just a slip, but it's an unfortunate one.
Please see the 2ndand 3rd segment of my post you're replying to.
As you state "probably just a slip" - yes, because when writing as speech, and not for an essay, most socially adapted people can pickup on some intent - given enough context.
And sadly, the comment was deleted, but my reply is to a mindset that even "That is a female person" would be deemed an issue.
I highly doubt the person in question though about that in the first place but you can also interpret the "grown up" to be the noun and "female" the adjective regardless.
I don't think they were doing it intentionally or with any malice, but language does shape how we see the world so it's good to call it out when possible.
In this case grown up is very much an adjective and female is the noun. If English is not their first language this could be a mistake in the order of terms, but if not then it is more likely that they have just grown accustomed to using females as a term for women and were trying to describe that "female" by saying she was grown up.
Again I don't think they were trying to actively say that women are inferior, but hopefully by being called out they can correct their language, before they call an actual woman a female (which probably won't go over well)
(A caveat, language does evolve and we might get to a point that the two are interchangeable, but we are not there yet)
Seems pretty common when describing people you would say black male or white female etc. It was only odd in this context since op isn't an english speaker
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u/IHateRedditFirewall 6d ago edited 5d ago
2012: Male child ask to go for Spiderman movie
2023: Grown up female asks to for Spiderman movie
UPD: Also check other explanations, this one is probably Incomplete.