Is it degrading/condescending to refer to a woman as 'female'?

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Fauken said:
But you phrased it as a claim, which is what an accusation can be. A claim of wrongdoing.
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That’s fair, I suppose. I am sorry if I accused! 🙂 I guess I don’t know how else to describe what’s happening when people are saying that dictionaries do not list ‘female’ as a noun.
 
Well, so far only one such dictionary has been listed, and it’s not one a random one with no merit. Her claim isn’t groundless. Did Google say which dictionary it uses in its search results?
 
Fauken said:
Well, so far only one such dictionary has been listed, and it’s not one a random one with no merit. Her claim isn’t groundless. Did Google say which dictionary it uses in its search results?
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Lea101 said:
Yeah it’s not uncommon.

I don’t find the word offensive. It really depends on the context. What you described sounds perfectly fine. I think I tend to do that before, too.

Some examples I’ve read that made me uncomfortable is usually the ones that clearly meant women. Like there are tweets I have came across that are along the lines of ‘went out with a female tonight and she blah blah blah’ ‘females be like’ and so on. It’s just weird and can be quite dehumanizing, especially these guys only call women females, and men ‘men’. It’s slang, from what I see.

Ultimately it is a trivial thing to worry about, but it still make a lot of us uncomfortable.
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The slang is an inner city thing. I’m not African American, so I’m not 100% sure there, but I BELIEVE that in the African American community using the “woman” often throws back to slavery just like using the word “boy” does.

So I THINK that’s why some African Americans use female in place of woman. I THINK that’s the genius of that. However, I could be totally mistaken.

God Bless
 
Irishmom2 said:
I don’t know what dictionary that is, but my Webster’s dictionary does not have it as a noun.
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An old edition, perhaps? The oldest Webster’s dictionary in my possession dates from only 1977 and lists female as a noun with definitions similar to those in today’s online version.
 
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Is it degrading/condescending to refer to a woman as 'female'? Social Justice
An old edition, perhaps? The oldest Webster’s dictionary in my possession dates from only 1977 and lists female as a noun with definitions similar to those in today’s online version.
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RandomAlias said:
Did You Know?

In the 14th century, female appeared in English with such spellings as femel, femelle, and female. The word comes from the Latin femella, meaning “young woman, girl,” which in turn is based on femina, meaning “woman.” In English, the similarity in form and sound between the words female and male led people to use only the female spelling. This closeness also led to the belief that female comes from or is somehow related to male. However, apart from the influence of male on the modern spelling of female, there is no link between the origins of the two words.

The word male, by the way, derives from the Latin masculus.
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Interesting, didn’t know that. I am actually a Latin teacher but didn’t make that connection. Nice post.
 
Right. What is considered respectful usage differs over time and between cultures. It’s not some sinister conspiracy to take away your words or nullify the concept of gender; it’s just a shift (hastened in this era of speedy communication) in what is seen as polite vs. rude.
 
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Wesrock said:
There’s a lot of weird stuff going on with language policing.

But this isn’t a case of that. Referring to “that female” or “females” in most general conversations just sounds awkward and like it’s being said by charity censor activated someone lacking good social skills or manners. It’s not common usage and rather impolite.
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…said the language police.

Did you radio dispatch?..
“There’s a male in the Social Justice forum who started a thread about the use of the word ‘female’. There are a lot of females gathering at the scene and they look pretty agitated. Requesting a female officer for backup.”
 
The funny thing is that the plural, “boys” is typically fine but the singular “boy” would be an issue.
 
In the US, a simple nod is becoming acceptable. Lots of people do it around the cities.
 
AugustTherese said:
I literally just got crucified for referring to a girl whom I was engaged to as ‘this female’ to protect her identity
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It’s sad and unfortunate that you refer to receiving backlash over choice of words as getting crucified. Especially on a Catholic forum.
 
I think girls, women, and ladies is appropriate.

Also boys, men and gentlemen.
 
MchaelPatrick said:
It’s sad and unfortunate that you refer to receiving backlash over choice of words as getting crucified. Especially on a Catholic forum.
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Yeah, apparently I cannot choose any correct words…Thanks for pointing that out, again…
 
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