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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 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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[–] dandroid@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Huh, interesting. Which generation are you from, out of curiosity?

[–] dandroid@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

I'm a millennial. It could also have been regional as well, I have no clue.