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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by Trincapinones@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word "female", is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?

I don't know if this is the best place to ask, if it's not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^

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[–] Kazumara@feddit.de 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And why isn’t “a male” just as bad?

It is.

And what’s intrinsically wrong about those two as a noun?

Because you're reducing people to their characteristics of identity.

Why is it ok to call someone “a fire fighter“, “a journalist”, and not “a female”?

Because those are characteristics of their chosen functions.

It seems pretty easy to me, and I'm not even a native speaker.