After this “fun” little catastrophe of a thread concerning the use of the word “female”, looking at the comment section, it’s painfully obvious that the majority of Lemmy’s userbase are men. That’s not a generalization, that’s a literal fact.
“It’s just a word!”, “Maybe English isn’t their first language!”, and “Overact much?” seem to be the most common replies.
So let’s do what should have been done in the first place and ask women their opinion:
What do you think of the word “female” being used? Especially in the context of the linked post in question? When is the use of the word appropriate vs. not appropriate?
EDIT: I think the post linked got taken down. Good.
Context is important.
At the end of the day, “female” is just a word like any other word. It can certainly be used in a derogatory way (which I think the original Reddit post was) or it can be completely benign.
Generally speaking, when someone precedes “female” with “a” in front of it, I side eye them a little.
I mean, you can say that about any word. That’s kind of the point: context does matter.
Using the world “female” as a noun is often reflective of a person/attitude I do not want to associate with. A lot of it is a symptom of the dehumanization of women, and it makes me nervous to see it.
Had a former friend who start referring to black folks as “the blacks”. Point being: language can be subtle, but very much telling about how people view other humans.