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[–] 10 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Feedback unrelated to your core problem. I’ve found that when describing people it’s more appropriate/respectful to use man, woman, person or whichever way you like to describe people, save for male/female. The latter is good for speaking about subjects or patients in a more scientific/clinical/biological way, but can sound impersonal in an “othering” sense. Noones going to throw a fit over this unless you’re in a weird place online, but it does make your language softer and more personable

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  • [–] 11 points 3 weeks ago

    Yes, using "male" or "female" as a noun (rather than an adjective) is bad form when referring to people. At least, it's non-standard.

    That said, language is constantly evolving, and when there is a need, it will be filled. Convention be damned. And there is a need for a noun that means "girl or woman" that isn't clunky. There's no good "standard" word to use. I think that's one of the reasons this usage is becoming more common. (Personally, it gives me the ick, probably because I heard it used mostly in misogynistic contexts c. 2010 and it's hard to shed that connotation. But I see it more and more without that subtext more recently. I suspect in 50 years it will be "standard".)

    Similar deal with the singular "they". Some people still complain about that, even though it's been in use for a very long time (centuries, I think).

    I, for one, am a strong proponent of...well, my username. After all, "bro" can be short for Broseph or Brosephina.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Good point , for some reason I don't love the term "woman" but I am aware people use female pejoratively probably more often.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago*

    It took me a while to get to terms with man/woman, mainly because it feels like I'm a grown-up, and then I realised, fuck, I'll hit 30 soon...

    Boy/girl works in informal contexts ("what's up, old boy"), but I would not like getting called a boy in a condescending way myself. So I decided to go with the more standard words for adult male/female humans, for no reason other than that they are neutral. In my native language, there is no direct equivalent of the nouns male/female, and the one we have sounds like straight out of a David Attenborough narration.

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