'Females.'

[Toenailz]

Anyone else cringe when people refer to women as 'females' in the context of completely casual conversation? And also wonder where the fuck it started and why it's become so popular?

Usually utilised by men referring to women as 'females' and, on here, usually by scorned women referring to another woman that their DH is being in some way inappropriate with, as 'another female' or 'a female'.

Yeah yeah, the correct biological terms and all, but can't help feeling this has a rather sexist connotation to reduce women to less, as usual?

@Toenailz you do know what a woman is right?
A woman is an adult female so female is absolutely fitting when talking about women.

A man is an adult born male so males is also the correct term when talking about men.

Yeah, but my point is that there are adults/older people also neurodiverse who will use the terms in the same way. Ergo, context.

I don’t notice it, but I’d say it’s coming from Friday Night Dinner.

And they are correct. In this day & age it is more important than ever to differentiate female from woman as males can never be female (no matter how much they imagine they are!)

I'm assuming you've just fed the thread about the fiance private messaging a client who is 'a female'. I read that and wondered why OP hadn't written woman 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sounds either like an incel or a Ferengi from Star Trek.

I think female is great as it completely invalidate the she/her & they/them pronouns which thankfully are gone out of fashion.
But it also overrides the males identifying as "women" as males can never be females. Job done with a simple, scientifically & biologically correct word. The gender activists hate the terms males
& female as it debunks their ideological theories 🤣

We are desperately trying to get people to listen to us when we say that calling trans women just “women” undermines the struggles we go through etc, and saying how we want to be referred to our sex instead of “person with womb” etc.

Now calling the term “females” misogynistic is a sure way to get people to stop listening

I'm sorry but I don't understand the outrage about the use of " female". I didn't even know until very very recently this was now regarded by some people as apparently unacceptable.

I do think the use of the word " girl" to describe adult women is derogatory, demeaning and insulting . And it's disappointing to see it wheeled out ad nauseum on MN. Bad enough when men use it to minimise and infantilise women but so disappointing that so many women do this to themselves.

All part of the agenda. Males feel threatened & upset about the increasing use of the correct term female as they can never be female which is why the word infuriates certain individuals!

It must be endlessly draining going through life actively looking for ways to be offended.

I do it to differentiate as the meaning of the word women has changed and sometimes that's an important distinction to make. Other times it doesn't matter at all, and then I would probably say woman.

YANBU. I once saw someone on Twitter say “men use ‘females’ when they want to say ‘bitches’”, and honestly it checks out. Look at any sentence you see online with the word “females” instead of “women” and replace it with “bitches” and their tone and meaning comes through so much more clearly.

Absolutely! Imagine being offended by the word female.. Sure the human world (& animal world for that matter!) is made up of two sexes which can never be changed (unless you're a seahorse I think they can but humans can't !)

I prefer "Ladies"

Well many women now use female as they word cannot include men want to be women or identify as they /them or she /her.
It's a great word & wonderful to see it's use becoming more mainstream. It cuts out a lot of bollox (pardon the unintended pun!)

@Trumped I know what you mean, but I think there’s a difference in tone when it’s used by different people for different purposes. You can tell what the intent is based on the context of the conversation.

I have spent not a single second thinking about this before reading the thread and now, moving forward, will spend not a single second more thinking about it.

A total non issue.

I think I know what you mean. But the term has become extremely popular in the mainstream realm as female only refers to biolocally born females. A lot of media talk about female only prisons, female single spaces, female sports teams & there needs to be as it stops diluting the Gender ideology & highlights again there are only two sex.

No and I am surprised how much it bothers people. In the age of identity politics i prefer to use female because apparently woman can mean “man in dress who wears lipstick”

People feel women is somehow 'too much'. Colleagues and acquaintances of mine who are broadly apolitical and not particularly switched on to anything pertaining to gender and the debate surrounding sex-based rights of the last decade still avoid using the word women, I notice, in favour of euphemisms such as females or ladies.
I'm not sure whether ‐I'm in my 50s- women still feels political as in 'women's lib' and people flinch a bit for this reason.
Weirdly, it is the same in my European home language ‐'women' definitely has a political flavour which some try to avoid. Bizarre.

It’s actually not the correct term. ‘Female’ is an adjective. The noun is ‘woman’. That’s why it feels so off. It is also deeply associated with misogynistic incel types, who exclusive use it to refer to women specifically to dehumanise us.

I have no issue with the word female, in fact I prefer it to woman or girl, and it encompasses all age groups. I've got a scientific background though, we used the term male and female a lot.

I usually point people to this article when they want to know why I am a woman and not a "female".

https://www.jezebel.com/the-problem-with-calling-women-females-1683808274

See also, "Guys". I'm not a guy.

Unfortunately the term women/woman is being eroded mainly down to male entitlement

so at times I will use the term female when meaning women