The word “female” always carries some dismissive message for me. I don’t know about you - English isn’t my native language - but it feels like whenever someones uses that word to describe women (i.e. half of the people on this planet) it’s meant to de-humanize them. Like a female animal or something :(
That’s often how the word gets used. It can be benign in some contexts (usually academic), but a lot of the people who use female as a noun frequently are intentionally dehumanizing women.
It’s because it comes from a misogynistic attempt to categorize women as only suitable for breeding with/taking care of children. IE. their sole ‘usefulness’ is making more men, essentially. It’s why misogyny and fascism are often intertwined.
Did you notice that you implied men are people but women are females?
The word “female” always carries some dismissive message for me. I don’t know about you - English isn’t my native language - but it feels like whenever someones uses that word to describe women (i.e. half of the people on this planet) it’s meant to de-humanize them. Like a female animal or something :(
That’s often how the word gets used. It can be benign in some contexts (usually academic), but a lot of the people who use female as a noun frequently are intentionally dehumanizing women.
I definitely subscribe to that connotation. It’s not a good word to use outside of a very clinical context.
It’s because it comes from a misogynistic attempt to categorize women as only suitable for breeding with/taking care of children. IE. their sole ‘usefulness’ is making more men, essentially. It’s why misogyny and fascism are often intertwined.
Wot?
In your comment, you referred to men as people, but women as ‘females’. Which is extremely dehumanizing.