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 ^^

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    And to go out of your way to avoid saying “woman” makes you sound like some kind of incel weirdo, and you don’t want that.

    I’d just like to emphasise this. It’s not that using a different term is intrinsically bad, it’s just that the people who tend to do it are not cool and you don’t want to look like you’re associated with them.

    • Dandroid@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      When I was growing up, saying woman was offensive, because it made people feel old. So we would say “girl”. But now It’s flipped. Saying “girl” makes people feel too young, apparently.

      I’m still kind of adjusting. The word “woman” still feels icky to me because I was berated for saying it as a kid.

        • Pulptastic@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          Negative connotations to whom? If those described do not like the term it should not be used. Basic human dignity, just like using one’s preferred pronouns.

      • Jojo@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Welcome to language my friend. Always has, always will.

    • Quastamaza@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Meanwhile, you are perfectly ok with judging someone based uniquely on which term they tend to use? Oh my, mankind is really going down the drain…

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        Yes. Life is a game of trying to guess which people are full of shit. If they say “feeeemales” and then turn out to be fine, great, I’ll probably give them a heads up not to do that.

        Was there a non-judgmental era I’m unaware of?

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yes. Language can show what sort of media people consume and the sorts of groups they socialize with, especially when it comes to the internet.

        If someone is using incel language, there will be a strong initial assumption they spend time within incel circles consuming toxic content like Andrew Tate and will remain under that assumption until proven otherwise. Sorry, not sorry?