It’s time to stop saying “females” when talking about women. It’s weird and honestly getting old.
The word “female” is primarily an adjective, a descriptive word. It’s not a noun. It’s grammatically incorrect in a way that’s easily misunderstood. At least people know what you mean when you use “they’re” instead of “their.”
After all, not all females are women. A female what? A female donkey that rejected you at a bar? A female cat that told you you’re too short? And it’s not any better to say “female humans.” That just makes you seem like a robot, an extraterrestrial or a serial killer. Are we science experiments or people?
Luckily, we English-speakers have a non-creepy way to describe female humans in just one word. Singularly, it’s “woman.” If you can get more than one to talk to you, it’s “women.”
“Aren’t there more important women’s issues?” you may ask – of course there are. But that doesn’t mean we should forget about casual misogyny that seems to be socially acceptable. It’s getting old.
And yes, this language is misogynistic. It’s not only dehumanizing, but the people who say it are often part of the “manosphere,” a corner of the internet that promotes toxic masculinity, misogyny and anti-feminism.
All words have a purpose. People who promote the rhetoric used in the manosphere choose this word for a specific reason. They know it’s dehumanizing. With the rise in use of the term, it’s easier for young people, specifically men and boys, to fall into the same ideals as those who promote misogyny.
This term is on the rise. Google Trends shows while the word “females” has always been searched regularly, it started to rise more in popularity at the end of 2021. That’s around the same time popular, alt-right, manosphere, influencer Andrew Tate rose to prominence.
A quick search on X reflects this objectification. Searching the word “females” gets you numerous lewd photos of possibly AI-generated women as well as people complaining about “females these days.”
One post by @Matt_Pinner depicts an AI image of two women, captioned “females in the 80s, what do you notice?” The comments are filled with people commenting on the lack of tattoos and piercings, but also about how they supposedly aren’t transgender.
First of all, people did have tattoos and piercings in the 80s – see the entire punk movement. Second, there absolutely were transgender people in the 80s. It was just much more dangerous to be open about than it is now.
Allison Washington, a transgender woman who began to transition in 1988, wrote in response to a Quora post that she thinks “of the 1980s as the latter part of the Trans Dark Ages.” She goes on to say there weren’t any trans role models to look up to at the time, not because there weren’t any, but the few who were able to come out had to be secretive about it.
So why does using the word “females” automatically attract all kinds of bigotry? Not that a misogynist is likely going to care about trans rights, but it is interesting that using this word leads to the same echo chamber of hatred almost every time.
It’s a dead giveaway to loser incel behavior. Women absolutely do notice it. Just look at how many people notice when you use the word “male” when referring to men.
If you call women “females,” don’t be surprised when they don’t want to give you their number. It’s a dead giveaway to how you really feel about them, and it’s obviously nothing good.
