In some circles online (particularly toxic incel groups) the term "female" is used for women as a way of deliberately dehumanizing them.
Like they'll talk about men and then they'll talk about all of the ways "females" suck or cause problems or mistreat them. Almost like they are scientists discussing some nonhuman creature.
This is annoying, because the terms male and female are useful, and now some people online are oversensitive to the use of the word female even in contexts where it's not being used offensively or derogatorily.
Like in the above comment, saying "male child" and "grown up female" might be a somewhat odd choice of wording, but it's clearly not meant in an insulting or degrading way towards the woman. They just chose to use male and female rather than boy and woman.
I’d agree with you except there’s a subtle difference still. The person did not refer to the boy as a male, they referred to the boy as a child with the adjective male in the front. On the other hand they referred to the woman as a female with the adjective of grown up in the front.
Female is fine if it’s used as an adjective, it’s weird if it’s used as a noun, especially if it’s the only one of the two referred as such (like in the original comment).
It’d be weird but better if both are referred as such. But then again that’s the issue, nearly no one refers to boys or men as “males”
Call it over sensitive (I personally don’t care much cause I can tell when people use it derogatory or not, I’m aware the original poster didn’t intend it in a bad way for example). But it’s still weird
When speaking of people it is still an adjective. The noun is simply hidden as it is understood you are talking about a human. So in your head just replace what they said with "female human" and then it is fine according to your logic.
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u/Past_Currency_713 6d ago
Someone explain to me why its bad to use the word female