I’m not sure I like the idea of demonizing people just because of a word. Unless it’s something as fucked as the n word, it might just be a matter of dialect. Many no natives English speakers I know use female as a replacement for woman. The intent is the more important thing. Sometimes the most well spoken man can also be sexist.
Otoh, some women use this while referring to other women, e.g. “us females need to stick together!” - in a totally positive and inclusive manner (or what looks like that, from me on the outside - i.e. not using language in such manner myself, for either men or women).
So maybe instead of a red flag it’s more like an orange one? VERY noteworthy, but not enough on its own to justify cutting off contact with someone, whereas for an actual red flag you would… right?
Someone should really tell everyone from the south. I had no idea until it was pointed out to me by someone younger. Changed my behavior of course, but was simply ignorant before.
A lot of people use certain words just out of habit, the last thing you need is some SJW jumping down your throat and calling you names cause they don’t like your regional dialect. Lots of words I grew up with that were normal or not that bad, and now are considered super offensive. It’s not a malicious thing, all you can do is calibrate and learn, but some people get so worked up if you don’t use the words they’re used to
Remember, pirates did fly red flags as well as black ones. The red ones meant you were extra fucked.
I think black was like, “We just want your shit and we’ll let you live if you surrender” while red was like, “We’re gonna kill and then take your shit or take your shit and then kill you, either way you will not survive,” kinda thing.
If you saw a pirate ship with a rainbow flag though , you’re in for a mean margarita and a good time.
he’d probably call women maidens
Yes, fun idea. No problem with that but… that ‘flag’ is a sail. They’re different things.
Using a sail to fly your colours is a red flag.
Sus. Having any issue with a red flag meme. /s
With an attitude like that, something tells me that pirate won’t be getting any booty
Or they are just non-native english speakers
Yeah, but those people don’t get defensive when you comment on it, while those who are raising the red flag immediately do. It’s pretty easy to tell them apart from that point forward.
Pretty sure non natives will be the first ones to use “woman” and not “female”. I know it’s not something we say in French anyway, a woman is a woman.
a woman is a woman
Problematic part
Blague à part, il existe d’autres langue (non-indo-européennes) ou la distinction est moins aisée à faire. Par exemple en Hongrois on dit “nő” pour “femme” et “nőstény” pour “femelle”, mais on peut les interchanger dans certains cas et les traducteurs automatiques s’y emmêlent les pinceaux des fois.
What a sweetheart you are. Can’t even let a webcomic get away with not being inclusive.
I been wondering people’s opinion of “Female” in some instances. Like is “First Female president/athlete/mayor/lawyer” appropriate? “First woman____” doesn’t sound right and you wouldn’t say “first man athlete to run 2 hour marathon” you would use male.
Most things can be rephrased maybe, but obviously using Females outside these instances is very right wing cringe.
“Female” is fine to use as an adjective.
It’s also fine to use as a noun when describing livestock, which is why it’s a red flag to describe women that way.
What is a good word to use for people who are female of any age including young children that are not old enough to be called women in addition to women?
‘Women and girls’ is pretty clunky when talking about something that is gender specific, but applies to all ages.
Just ask yourself if you’d use “males” in that context.
I absolutely would use males in that context. “Toxic masculinity has a detrimental affect on males of all ages” sounds perfectly fine to me because I don’t know of a different label for the group and males doesn’t have the same dehumanizing usage as females.
boys and men / girls and women sounds right to me
‘Gendered violence against teenage women and girls’ is really clunky. Especially if it needs repeating across paragraphs.
If there isn’t something, that’s fine.
“Gendered violence against females” on the other hand sounds a bit too clinical though… Like you’re removing their personhood
If ‘females’ wasn’t used by online sexists to treat women as objects would it sound that way?
Maybe! I don’t know if “gendered violence against men” also has the same connotations.
Maybe this is indeed is a case of those people poisoning the term.
Women is probably fine to use when the ages can be gleaned from context. You can also make the noun non gendered and use female as a adjective like “female students” or “female patients”
I’m mainly asking when ages span from birth to old age and the goup would basically be “female persons” or “male persons” which is clunky.
Sometimes it can be rephrased, but it often requires multiple words to mean the same thing. Plus “women of all ages” will be read as not including children.
I’m mostly pissed that sexists ruined the only single word term we have for half of the population.
Woman as an adjective is picking up in my circles and podcasts I listen to. Woman scientist, woman entrepreneur. It may have sounded weird initially, but I’ve gotten over it and I suspect it will develop over time to be completely normal.
I wouldn’t really compare it to the male/man counterpart, because men aren’t demeaned by being called “male” regularly.
Woman used as an adjective like this sounds so wrong to me (probably because it isn’t an adjective). If you wouldn’t say man voter, man driver, men reporters, etc., then why would you say woman voter, women drivers, woman reporter? Just because some people use ‘female’ in a way that you object to shouldn’t make all uses of it objectionable. Do you want a world in which we can say ‘male patients’, but have to say ‘woman and girl patients’ instead of female patients? Why??
I agree it works in most cases it works fine but like “First woman astronaut” feels weird.
I mostly didn’t want to be accidentally participating in something shitty.
Edit: or like “fastest woman athlete”
Yeah, I remember feeling like it was weird, but both of those sound absolutely fine to me now.
I also would never balk at “female” as an adjective in those cases, nor assume the speaker was being misogynist.
Ferengi off the port bow.
FIRE!!
Lmao good one