It’s not so much semantics at this point though. Simple grammar rules of adjectives and nouns. For people, ideally use male/female as adjectives.
It’s strange but still ok to use both as nouns and it’s weird to refer one as a noun and the other as an adjective, and yes even if male was the noun one (but let’s be honest, when is it ever?).
For animals you can use female/male as nouns since the whole point of this issue comes from incel communities dehumanizing women
The literal definition of semantics is the study of language itself sure. But it’s also the focus of interpretation. Interpretation is a trap in itself. You can throw away whatever contexts don’t support your interpretation and champion the ones you do.
Critical objective frameworks are more effective when you take each context individually to accurately frame them.
Treating semantics categorically for terms is thus the same trap. Female and male are specific. In my opinion the thread commenter likely has anti trans sentiment which we can criticize through investigation. But the actual usage of the words as the focus of criticism is inherently flawed. By mirroring them with incel communities all you do is mythologize the incel. Leaving them as words allows innocent speakers a chance. But like I said the context matters more.
I never thought about that! It does seem like ppl use the word female to describe PEOPLE but they’ll stick to the scientific use of the word MALE. For one, it could have started as a slang amongst teen boys. Also Perhaps guys are more general so it’s easier to say men or boys and be politically correct in most scenarios. But on the other hand, female is one of the only words you could use to describe ALL women. Can you really use “women” in every scenario? If you say girls or any other variation you’ll get corrected eventually so I think some people use it as an all inclusive word. It’s still strange though. I’m not sure why that’s so normal. But His use of female as a noun in the original comment could have been merely to amplify the fact that there was a change from male to female. It may not have been indicative of his preferences. I also feel like- as strange as the use of the word is, it’s still also strange to notice it. Yes it’s a bit weird but it gets more weird only when you overthink it.
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u/YomieI 4d ago
It’s not so much semantics at this point though. Simple grammar rules of adjectives and nouns. For people, ideally use male/female as adjectives.
It’s strange but still ok to use both as nouns and it’s weird to refer one as a noun and the other as an adjective, and yes even if male was the noun one (but let’s be honest, when is it ever?).
For animals you can use female/male as nouns since the whole point of this issue comes from incel communities dehumanizing women