this reminds me of a mental pebble in my shoe, sometimes it feels like there is an age category problem, "woman" still feels too old/mature no matter how old I get and "girls" sounds too young at this point, "chicks" is my go to because feels vague enough but maybe I just need work on my vocabulary
I've been recently trying to phase my usage of "girls" out when referring to women, because it's unintentionally belittling. I've settled on just saying "woman" when referring to an adult woman in general.
Of course, if you're referring to a woman in person, you need to refer to her as "milady" and tip your hat. That's just basic etiquette.
Girl is a child. Woman is an adult. Young woman if it's vaguely in between.
Female if you're doing medicine or science.
The girl lost her doll. The woman paid her taxes. The young women got dropped off at the movies. The female puffin lays one egg per season and shares the burden of caring for the puffling equally with their mate.
They are! And it's one of the nice things to know in times like this.
There's a town in eastern Canada where sometimes pufflings get lost on their inaugural flight. The entire town goes out during the season to round them up, take them to a rehab facility to make sure they aren't hurt.
In the morning, the families take the healthy pufflings to a cliff and hurl them into the sea.
This sounds awful until you recall that puffins are aquatic birds who live on cliffs, so it's really just the first step towards breakfast for them.
I think we often forget about âyoung manâ and âyoung woman.â
When someone is too young to safely call a woman, âyoung womanâ is quite a compliment and gives her the respect of an adult anyway. If someone is just barely too old to be called a girl, they will probably find it neutral enough. And if someone is much too old to be called a girl they will appreciate it as flattery.
Yeah some people will have that association. But only rarely will the grammar of the situation even match that at all.
For example, letâs say you are the store manager and a customer has requested a refund. You call down to billing to see if they can hook it up, and you say âHi, yeah this is Dave. I have a young woman here who received the wrong size shoe in her pickup orderâŠâ
Thereâs no way for her to interpret that as âsheâs in trouble.â
In fact, to match the association youâre talking about, it pretty much has to be used in directly addressing the person. And how often do you begin a normal sentence by saying âWoman, sit tight - Iâm going to get you a refund for this.â
Itâs an example for illustrative purposes. It illustrates the point about grammar I was making. Now youâre on another point about whether itâs even necessary to use a gendered term at all. I donât really feel like running around in circles on this further.
I guess I can see some ways that âladyâ or âladiesâ could sound sleazy but Iâm surprised if this is someoneâs first or only association. âLadyâ is literally a landed title, the equivalent of âLord,â and the highly dignified counterpart to âgentleman.â
Speaking generously, I can see what you mean. But I think people only have this problem when they are used to calling people âgirlsâ far too long. If you shake that bad habit, you wonât find yourself coming into conflict with these terms so often.
May I suggest the term âyoung womenâ as a highly respectful way to refer to younger folks. And if you are truly in doubt or referring to a mixed group, âladiesâ is an alternative too.
I donât recommend âchicks.â Some people are okay with it but many are not. A chick is a newly hatched bird, so this is quite infantilizing.
Honestly I feel like I'm gonna get myself in trouble every time I use "female" at all. There isn't really another adjective to use though. Saying "woman boxer" has a totally different meaning than "female boxer" for example. Oh well, I don't really value the opinion of people who would fault me for stepping on linguistic bear trap anyway.
Thats weird, when people signal to me that they are an incel, I think they look less attractive. Not more attractive. Quark is fucking awesome, stop the ferengi hate.
I'm stumped. What do you call a group of female humans without implying anything about their ages? i.e. they can be old ladies or newborns, or anywhere in between.
Idgi. What word are you supposed to use when referencing females now? It's not "woman," unless you're wanting to talk about gender. Or are people back to equating the two?
OP is referring to people who only refer to women as "females". its a weird trait from the manosphere. you'll hear shit like "these females nowadays..." or "you know what the problem with females is...". they can't call them women for some reason. like they can see a group of women and instead of calling them a group of women, they'll be like "those females".
My grandmother used that word a lot but she was born in 1934 so I knew she wasn't using it incelulously but I also couldn't help but visualize Quark everytime she said it
I don't really see an inherent problem with girls. Girls is the female version of guys as well, not just boys. Nobody really says things like gals anymore. It's just sort of casual.
People get too damn offended man. I even get PTSD when I'm talking about "females" in a scientific sense. I'm not female but I don't find "female" offensive. Crazy times for real.
89 Comments
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 87 pts · 161d
So...devastatingly handsome?
essell@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 160d
Would you look at the lobes on that đ„°
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social · 18 pts · 160d
You can clearly see he has the lobes for business đ
DmMacniel@feddit.org · 6 pts · 160d
but not the ...... biggest lobes as his cousin not him owns a moon.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social · 4 pts · 160d
You think he should have them surgically shrunk to go as a fe-male? Behave!
BillyClark@piefed.social · 11 pts · 160d
And just look at that dashing smile. And such good hygiene. He clearly uses his tooth sharpener regularly.
I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 160d
His moogy does it for him.
rovingnothing29@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
Now we know. Knowledge equals profit after-all.
ch00f@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 160d
/r/incels had a CSS feature that would insert little ferengi heads every time someone used the word âfemale.â
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net · 15 pts · 160d
That's amazing
RVGamer06@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 159d
You could put CSS in a subreddit?
Fuck modern tech, taking customization away
ch00f@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 159d
go to old.reddit.com. Many subs are still custom.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 161d
Whenever someone says females but doesn't specify the species, I assume they mean goats.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 7 pts · 160d
"yeah man, same. I got two females at home and let me tell ya"
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 160d
Chop chop dig dig chop chop dig dig
scarabic@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
Iâm going to adopt that as a personal reading rule, right up there with âif the headline ends with a question mark, the answer is no.â
klu9@piefed.social · 2 pts · 160d
Aren't you going to tell us about the experience that led you to that?
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
I downloaded the wrong version of Goat Simulator and it awoke... Something..
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 8 pts · 160d
Something... Baa'aad
Kowowow@lemmy.ca · 22 pts · 160d
this reminds me of a mental pebble in my shoe, sometimes it feels like there is an age category problem, "woman" still feels too old/mature no matter how old I get and "girls" sounds too young at this point, "chicks" is my go to because feels vague enough but maybe I just need work on my vocabulary
BillyClark@piefed.social · 30 pts · 160d
I've been recently trying to phase my usage of "girls" out when referring to women, because it's unintentionally belittling. I've settled on just saying "woman" when referring to an adult woman in general.
Of course, if you're referring to a woman in person, you need to refer to her as "milady" and tip your hat. That's just basic etiquette.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 160d
Lady? Gal? Feminoid? I think context and tone matter a lot too.
I try to stick to pal and comrade these days but it's hard to beat decades of habit.
Kowowow@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 160d
But foids are known to spike cortisol levels
ricecake@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 160d
Girl is a child. Woman is an adult. Young woman if it's vaguely in between.
Female if you're doing medicine or science.
The girl lost her doll. The woman paid her taxes. The young women got dropped off at the movies. The female puffin lays one egg per season and shares the burden of caring for the puffling equally with their mate.
Machinist@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
Are they acually called pufflings? (pretty great if they are)
ricecake@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 160d
They are! And it's one of the nice things to know in times like this.
There's a town in eastern Canada where sometimes pufflings get lost on their inaugural flight. The entire town goes out during the season to round them up, take them to a rehab facility to make sure they aren't hurt.
In the morning, the families take the healthy pufflings to a cliff and hurl them into the sea.
This sounds awful until you recall that puffins are aquatic birds who live on cliffs, so it's really just the first step towards breakfast for them.
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 160d
"Ladies"
cadekat@pawb.social · 7 pts · 160d
"Ladies" can come across as sleazy, imo. And sometimes you're in a situation where the class/status suggested by "lady" ends up sounding sarcastic.
"Gals" implies a level of friendship, and "dames" is too old timey.
It's a tight rope walk of sounding too familiar/formal, implying old/young, or being insulting/demeaning... I conclude that we need a new word.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
I think we often forget about âyoung manâ and âyoung woman.â
When someone is too young to safely call a woman, âyoung womanâ is quite a compliment and gives her the respect of an adult anyway. If someone is just barely too old to be called a girl, they will probably find it neutral enough. And if someone is much too old to be called a girl they will appreciate it as flattery.
ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 160d
Hm. Calling someone young woman or young man - to my middle aged ass - means they are in trouble.
Young man/young woman, haven't your parents taught you proper manners? We eat salad with salad fork, not dessert one!
(You get the gist)
scarabic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
Yeah some people will have that association. But only rarely will the grammar of the situation even match that at all.
For example, letâs say you are the store manager and a customer has requested a refund. You call down to billing to see if they can hook it up, and you say âHi, yeah this is Dave. I have a young woman here who received the wrong size shoe in her pickup orderâŠâ
Thereâs no way for her to interpret that as âsheâs in trouble.â
In fact, to match the association youâre talking about, it pretty much has to be used in directly addressing the person. And how often do you begin a normal sentence by saying âWoman, sit tight - Iâm going to get you a refund for this.â
ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 159d
I mean call me weird, but in both of those situations one would use "a customer" instead.
Dear customer, sit tight.
Dave, I have a customer here...
scarabic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 159d
Itâs an example for illustrative purposes. It illustrates the point about grammar I was making. Now youâre on another point about whether itâs even necessary to use a gendered term at all. I donât really feel like running around in circles on this further.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
I guess I can see some ways that âladyâ or âladiesâ could sound sleazy but Iâm surprised if this is someoneâs first or only association. âLadyâ is literally a landed title, the equivalent of âLord,â and the highly dignified counterpart to âgentleman.â
cadekat@pawb.social · 1 pts · 160d
No no, definitely not what I meant! In some circumstances, it can be sleazy (like "hey ladies").
scarabic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
I mean sure - when the Beastie Boys say it, they are not exactly addressing the collective women of the gentry in their area.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 1 pts · 160d
Especially when one of thier singles is also the song "Girls" about doing the dishes.
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
? That is the appropriate greeting.
Kowowow@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 160d
I don't know how ladies slipped my mind but I have to agree with you
MohamedMoney@feddit.org · 1 pts · 160d
Just say 'women'
cadekat@pawb.social · 8 pts · 160d
To quote the earlier comment:
MohamedMoney@feddit.org · 6 pts · 160d
Yes, I read that. I also read your comment und you concluded (somewhat jokingly, I know), that 'we' need a new word for 'women'.
My, now more elaborate, response to that is, that 'we' donât need a new word, you should learn to use the perfectly cromulent available ones.
tordenflesk@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
Young women?
scarabic@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 160d
Speaking generously, I can see what you mean. But I think people only have this problem when they are used to calling people âgirlsâ far too long. If you shake that bad habit, you wonât find yourself coming into conflict with these terms so often.
May I suggest the term âyoung womenâ as a highly respectful way to refer to younger folks. And if you are truly in doubt or referring to a mixed group, âladiesâ is an alternative too.
I donât recommend âchicks.â Some people are okay with it but many are not. A chick is a newly hatched bird, so this is quite infantilizing.
Kowowow@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 160d
Being in my thirties "young women" feels like I'm trying to play some sort of epstien judo
backalleycoyote@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 160d
âDudetteâ
Nobody really knows what to make of it because they seem to think theyâre encountered a time-traveling surfer.
endless_nameless@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 160d
Honestly I feel like I'm gonna get myself in trouble every time I use "female" at all. There isn't really another adjective to use though. Saying "woman boxer" has a totally different meaning than "female boxer" for example. Oh well, I don't really value the opinion of people who would fault me for stepping on linguistic bear trap anyway.
troglodytis@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 160d
Female is a great adjective and a poor noun.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 160d
such a female thing to say.
/s
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 160d
Female birds generally have less colorful plumage than male birds.
Tja@programming.dev · 4 pts · 160d
Female is fine. Females is very often used in a problematic way.
endless_nameless@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 159d
I have had negative experiences with people much more opinionated and much less discerning than you.
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 160d
I had a really fantastic laugh about this.
Shayeta@feddit.org · 3 pts · 160d
Female boxer when woman boxer walks in:
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 160d
coolfission@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
Thereâs âgalâ or âladyâ
ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 160d
Gal boxer and lady boxer both sound like it's someone who hits them gals and ladies though?
On the other hand, since women usually fight other women, it strangely might fit? :)
endless_nameless@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 159d
Lady boxer is still someone who punches women...
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 160d
Yes, call em bitches like a normal person.
Tja@programming.dev · 10 pts · 160d
Give that bitch some respect. Bitches love respect.
kepix@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 160d
incels ruining basic biology words
jojowakaki@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 160d
Ayy fuck you. I look like that but I don't go around calling people "females".
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 160d
quark did say females that are pregnant are considered rentals.
peteypete420@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 160d
Thats weird, when people signal to me that they are an incel, I think they look less attractive. Not more attractive. Quark is fucking awesome, stop the ferengi hate.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social · 2 pts · 160d
Men... vileâŠbubbly and cloying and happy đ
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
So like the Sunnyvale mayor in a weird costume?
Edit: sunnydale
Widdershins@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
Are you talking that drunk bastard Jim Lahey or that no-shirt, lawn-mowing, 15-cheeseburger-eating prick?
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
Frick off Randy, I didn't eat 15-cheeseburgers
JimBeann@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
You mean principal Snyder of Sunnydale High. Never realized it's the same guy
howrar@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 160d
I'm stumped. What do you call a group of female humans without implying anything about their ages? i.e. they can be old ladies or newborns, or anywhere in between.
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 160d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN82MrcL14I
Cruel@programming.dev · 2 pts · 160d
Idgi. What word are you supposed to use when referencing females now? It's not "woman," unless you're wanting to talk about gender. Or are people back to equating the two?
erev@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 160d
OP is referring to people who only refer to women as "females". its a weird trait from the manosphere. you'll hear shit like "these females nowadays..." or "you know what the problem with females is...". they can't call them women for some reason. like they can see a group of women and instead of calling them a group of women, they'll be like "those females".
Jarix@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
My grandmother used that word a lot but she was born in 1934 so I knew she wasn't using it incelulously but I also couldn't help but visualize Quark everytime she said it
Ghostie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 160d
jve@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
Is it worse than âgirlsâ when talking about women?
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 6 pts · 160d
I don't really see an inherent problem with girls. Girls is the female version of guys as well, not just boys. Nobody really says things like gals anymore. It's just sort of casual.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 1 pts · 160d
If women can call each other dudes, im reserving Girl for anyone my age and younger.
Lucky_777@lemmy.world · -5 pts · 160d
People get too damn offended man. I even get PTSD when I'm talking about "females" in a scientific sense. I'm not female but I don't find "female" offensive. Crazy times for real.
Smoogs@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
username_1@programming.dev · -28 pts · 161d
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net · 44 pts · 161d
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com · 14 pts · 161d
Found the guy who uses bool for gender options
ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 160d
It is the best option.
Gender? True | false.
Maultasche@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d
What about using Boolean where Null is an option?
DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 160d
Given the context, I believe what they meant is when people use the word "females" to refer to women. Like the Ferengi do.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 160d
If you don't pronounce it like ferengi do, emphasis and all, are you really saying it right?
DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 160d
Hyoo-maAhns don't know how to pronounce it properly
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 160d
i just say they aren't having enough fun pronouncing it and why say things the boring way
Absolute_Axoltl@feddit.uk · 9 pts · 160d
Someone is having a mare
U7826391786239@piefed.zip · 9 pts · 160d
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 6 pts · 160d
Are you legitimately stupid, like, are you on paper declaring that you are stupid?
troglodytis@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 160d
Yes. Yes. That's fine.
Female is a great adjective and a poor noun.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d
Yep get memorizing, fool.
Ghostie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 160d