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

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I am reminded of the quote- No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

You aren’t required to be insulted even someone means to insult you. If a guy calls you a female with the intent to insult you just roll your eyes. It is a poor insult. We don’t have to ban the word.
 
Let me see if I can try to explain it.

I am female, yes, that is my sex, but I am not just female. Apes are female too. Fish are female. Even parts on plants are female. Female tends to focus on the more biological/physiological aspect of my sex, which is why we describe parts on plants as female and it would be valid. So just calling someone “female” may be viewed as a reduction of that person to just their sex. Almost like saying “This uterus-holder” in a sense.

I am not just female, I am a woman. I am a human female, a creation made in the image of my God. We do not call pigs, fish, or plant parts “women” or “girls” because that word is unique to humans. That word acknowledges my humanity and my sex.
 
Honestly, if I heard someone say female instead of woman my first thought is they are a police officer, in the medical profession or in a science based profession.
 
Fauken said:
I am female, yes, that is my sex, but I am not just female. Apes are female too. Fish are female. Even parts on plants are female. Female tends to focus on the more biological/physiological aspect of my sex, which is why we describe parts on plants as female and it would be valid. So just calling someone “female” may be viewed as a reduction of that person to just their sex. Almost like saying “This uterus-holder” in a sense.

I am not just female, I am a woman. I am a human female, a creation made in the image of my God. We do not call pigs, fish, or plant parts “women” or “girls” because that word is unique to humans. That word acknowledges my humanity and my sex.
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I cannot help you, nor anyone else, how someone subjectively interprets a word. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘female’ when used as a noun, and I quote, as this: “a female person : a woman or a girl”. Now, when I state ‘this female to whom I was engaged’ and you, and others, want to take that out of context and use it to prove a political or sociological point, especially on a post regarding my discernment, I find it selfish, abrasive, and an utter waste of all of our time.
 
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AugustTherese said:
Now, when I state ‘this female to whom I was engaged’ and you, and others, want to take that out of context
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Honestly, I don’t care. I have no point to prove, no political nor sociological agenda to shove down anyone’s throat. I’d like to think I’m trying to facilitate understanding. We all know you didn’t try to be offensive. We know you were trying to protect her identity, and I don’t think anyone here has demanded you name her. What everyone has gotten into a fuss about is what appears to be your utter and obstinate denial that your words could be taken in a way that you didn’t mean them and that they have no base to their claim. I agree, the fact the thread was derailed by that was a waste of your time. Though I would question why you then decided to make a thread over nothing but this distracting issue afterwards.

Words are tricky, nuanced things. We all need help in how we express ourselves in the written form, especially since our words are the only means we have on this forum to convey our ideas. As a priest you would be writing a lot of things. You would deal with parishioners who have agendas, some of whom may even want you kicked out and replaced. I hope you’ll never have to deal with those people, as a priest or otherwise. At the moment, no one has called for your removal, crucifixion, or even an apology. They’re not asking for hardly anything. They are trying to make you understand why this is an issue, an issue that people with ill-intentions could actually try to use against you.

If you still don’t see what the point is, I’m not sure of what else to say. I would suggest you then ignore this thread and focus on something else. Perhaps make another post on the priesthood. Or, since it is now Lent, read a book over it. Have you heard of “To Save a Thousand Souls”? I’ve heard it’s a classic and great book for discernment of diocesan priesthood. Or would you rather be a priest in a religious order? There are members here who are member of the lay branches of a number of religious orders and can explain their charisms. Do you have a spiritual director? That would also be considered a necessity, especially one who is a priest.
 
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It can be. Not everyone that does means it as such, but certainly people that do. MGTOW, pick-up artists, incels… It’s a part of their language to dehumanize an entire group of people so they can continue to justify their exploitation or hatred for the said group.

Of course, not everyone is those people… But outside of being part of a profession where it’s habit, I can’t really seem why’d just not use woman/women.
 
It depends on the context. The word woman can also be used in a snarky way.
 
My next thought after seeing they’re not in these professions would be that they’re lacking in social skills and therefore talk awkwardly.
 
“this female”? For someone in a close relationship with you? As others have said, it just sounds really cold and impersonal. Imagine me starting a conversation with “this man walked into my office …” - would you imagine that I was talking about my own father or brother? Would you not assume that I was talking about someone not really connected to me, maybe even inventing him for purposes of a joke or something?

I usually refer even to inanimate objects, if they are connected with me, in terms of the connection - “my house”, “my car”, “my purse”. I don’t simply say “that car”, “that house” “the purse over there on the table”. Same with family or friends - “my mother” “my sister” "
AugustTherese said:
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Bruised_Reed:
I wouldn’t say it was glaringly obvious. You stated that you did but how you referred to her left some question
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Really?! Then, what exactly about how I used ‘this female’, ‘left some question’? Strange how not everyone felt this way, but a select few, mostly women.
Bruised_Reed said:
On this forums [sic] I’ve seen posters use “men and females” and those aren’t equivalent.
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What does that have anything to do with me or my OP? That seems like a hasty generalization fallacy.
Bruised_Reed said:
No one has suggested the word female is wrong, but how you used it
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Actually, not one person pointed out ‘how used it’, because, there was absolutely nothing wrong with how I used it; i.e. “This female to whom I was engaged”. Does that sound ‘dehumanizing’ to you?! The same people that had criticized me on that forum have suggested that the word ‘female’ is solely an adjective and not a noun; do you think, just maybe, that these people might have ‘read’ my OP with good intention, but rather chose only to focus on the word ‘female’, thus most probably became over-sensationalized by their seeming own insecurities, as others have clearly argued that there was nothing wrong with my usage of that term?
Bruised_Reed said:
What derailed your thread was you not considering the first correction
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Of course I ‘considered’ it. I considered it to be completely impudent for someone to attempt to ‘correct’ something that needed not to be corrected. I rebuked those comments because they were simply there solely to criticize, not to ‘correct’! My OP was to seek help about a discernment situation that has been of indescribable and excruciating, personal torment for me. And, for people to read ‘this female’, and for them to claim that you cannot use it has a noun as it is ‘dehumanizing’ is not just ignorant, but downright malicious and self-indicative of seeming deep-seeded problems they are projecting on such a superficial and trivial use of semantics.

You must have missed my multiple comments where I explicitly informed the posters that I chose to use ‘this female’ solely to protect her identity.
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That would be appropriate for them. They don’t always have concrete info so they say “20 year old female” or “male in his 20s” or “male child” “female adult presenting with…” The language is clinical and consistant.
 
Here is the context: Some females on this forum need to give their head a shake. One female says she wasn’t offended and then goes on for miles arguing that some people could have been offended.

I’m very disappointed in Catholics when I read this thread. You are acting like the secular femi-Nazis. Why do you want to correct this guy? What are you going to do? Correct every male who happens to make a statement you don’t like? Do you put a check mark on your wall if males do correct their speech? Do you correct every bus driver who’s two minutes late? What kind of feminist Utopia are you creating?
 
I don’t like it. It sounds like you’re referring to a dog or some other animal. I don’t know why I don’t like it, but I just don’t. It’s sort of makes me cringe. Not that I would call somebody out on it, because I wouldn’t. To each his own.
 
You are not grasping the difference at all. There is a difference.
 
Stop overreacting. OP asked and we replied.

We can’t win, can we…? If something makes us uncomfortable and we keep quiet, then we should have said something because the poor guy can’t read our minds. But if we say something, we are suddenly femi-nazis…?
 
And OP, you asked a question and people replied. Why ask if you are going to lash out when given an unsatisfactory answer? You basically wanted support to justify your feelings, not because you are curious to find out the opinions of the women here.
 
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You don’t have any right to not be offended. If people were truly offended, they could have just flipped to another thread.

And he never wanted to read our minds. He wanted genuine help and you all treat him like he’s a pariah. How many times do you need to have it said to you that no harm was intended?
 
Sometimes, occasionally or not, guys speak of women in derogatory ways. And if it’s in our families, which it is not in mine, one could ask a guy to refrain. But this is a guy on the internet meaning no harm. He didn’t ask to be corrected and it wasn’t the time to correct him, and if somebody felt called to do so, she could have sent him a PM. Why publicly admonish him and continue flogging him?
 
We have the right to be offended and he has the right to ignore us.

We also have the right to respond to a thread, lol. He asked a question, we responded. That’s how threads work.

I don’t see a ton of posts insulting him. Just a bunch of women saying that they find it disrespectful depending on the context. Me thinks you are the one being sensitive here. He just got offended because he didn’t get the response he’s looking for. Perhaps he thought he would get a heated thread about feminism. Idk but it’s obvious that he’s not here to find out the answer to the question he asked.
 
Hello.

Probably is better than calling her “it,” unless you’re playing tag. 😊
 
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