The basic rule of thumb is that anyone who gets upset with you using the word female isn't worth your time. If they're really going to get upset about you using the word female then they're probably going to get upset about a lot of other trivial things as well and that's not the sort of negativity and bitterness you want in your life.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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I understand your pain. My home language doesn't even have separate words for woman and female, or male and man.
What language, if you donβt mind me asking? Iβm interested in linguistics and this seems like an interesting tangent.
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Let me break down the explanations given, because most of them boil down to this:
As a noun, yes, because it's mainly used in biology like that ("A hawk female") and thus can come off as dehumanizing. As an adjective: No ("A female cashier", "A male cashier")
Not with proper hygiene.
Female as an adjective is inoffensive everywhere, but you will run into problems in some contexts because its definition is currently in flux and different people will mean different things by it.
Female as a noun has the same changing definition deal, and also some online misogynists use it as a pejorative. It isn't one, but they use it as one. As a corollary, some others on the internet have chosen to be offended by the term.