this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
250 points (88.6% liked)

Asklemmy

43891 readers
991 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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 ^^

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (7 children)

"I have a female friend." (As in "I have a friend that's a woman.") "I've talked with a female today." (As in "I've talked with a woman today.")

The first one is fine, because isn't using the word as an adjective. The second one is derogatory, because it is being used as a substantive.

load more comments (5 replies)