• dmention7@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s pretty simple. Male/female are adjectives and man/woman are nouns. Referring to a person as an adjective that describes them is generally not a great look because it reduces the person to that one characteristic about them.

    [Correct] Women who go shopping are female shoppers.

    [Incorrect] Females who go shopping are woman shoppers.

    It can be an honest mistake, but it’s used deliberately enough to warrant the side-eye, especially when people stand up to defend it. Some people do get a little weird about ANY usage of the word female, correct or not, but this is not one of those scenarios.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      To add to that, they are adjectives that can strip away someone’s humanity. Animals are described as male and female, for example “that’s a female rat”. While humans can be described with noun adjuncts like “they are a human woman”.

      Imo female and male should only really be utilized in a medical or scientific description.