POLL: Is it weird to use the word "Female"?

All uses of the word "female" on the Giant Bomb forums shall here on out be replaced with "guuurl."

Example: "Guurl, you're question is fiiiiiine!""

Yes, it was kinda weird. Not terribly incorrect but socially... I don't want to say "unacceptable" but I can't think of a word for "looked down upon".

I can't really judge if it's offensive or not in that context, but it was certainly horrible word choice.

I think the problem is that there's no good female counterpart for "guy." "Gal" seems slightly patronizing, and "lady" just feels weird for some reason (or maybe it's just me). So the only options are "woman" or "female." In this case, I guess "woman" would work, but it still feels strangely formal - I mean, I wouldn't say, "That man asked a nice question."

Of course, if we can solidify "dudette" as the informal, generic term for a woman, then all our problems are solved.

It's not that it's offensive or anything, I just think it shows a lack of social skills. If it could be used in that context, it could be used to describe your girlfriend as your femalefriend.

Or just... Girl?

It's not just weird, it's actually wrong. "Female" is typically never used as a noun when referring to humans, only as an adjective. The correct word in your first example is obviously "woman" and in the second "girl". The correct use of "female" is contexts like "female gamer" or similar. And yes, I've noticed this too.

While on the topic: I've seen a lot of people on this very forum being incapable of using "woman" and "women" correctly. Learn the difference people;the first is singular, the second plural.

Strangely, I almost never encounter similar problems when using "male" or "man/men". It's an oddly selective error.

Depends entirely on the context and how it's being used in a sentence.

@nivash said it better.

It all depends on context.

But that only implies someone still in their youth. Which might be taken as a compliment by someone in their 30's or 40's ("oh! He thought I looked like I was 20!") but another might be offended because they're not young and dumb and naive.

Girl is the counter to boy, to me there is an age difference between boy and guy that woman don't have if you use the term girl as an encompassing term not matter the age. I agree with zoozila, there is not a good informal woman version of "guy"

Well said.

I just call everybody "lady" regardless of gender.

It's entirely contextual. I have no idea how to explain the appropriate contexts, though. I would think it would be a common sense thing, something where you just know what's appropriate, but apparently it's not. A lot of the problem with "female" is how detached and impersonal it can be, the sort of thing someone with misogynistic tendencies might say. "Woman" or "girl" is just more natural and somewhat more personal. Just flip the gender and ask yourself if you'd say "male" instead of "man" or "boy." (I sometimes also have a problem with men using "girl" instead of "woman," but I'll holster that one for now.)

Just noticed @nivash's post and, yeah, they said it best.

I'm sorry, this is about whether it's normal to use the word female when clearly that guy used the word "ma'am" in the same fucking sentence?! Ma'am?! MA'AM?!

Well at least he didn't call her a broad or a chick. So hey...theres that.

Man, this sounds like something Borat would say. "Girl, you are question. Is fiiiine."

And this is probably why the dude used the word "female," there is no pronoun that you can use to refer to the notmale gender which won't cause you to be labelled a misogynist on the internet.

Especially right now. Somehow it does not matter at the moment because if you are white and a male you always lose in such conversations right now.,...

That sounds like a world I want to live in, I too will carry the dudette torch.

Using words and terms in the correct context is never weird.

Context is key. Use the right word for the right context.

Depends on the context.

That skirt asked a good question.

It does sound a little weird when spoken.

@nivash: It's wrong because it's rarely used as a noun? It can still be used as a noun and I see people use it like that all the time. Because it's rarely used like that doesn't make it wrong. That doesn't make any sense.

Well, this just goes to show that 66% of Giant Bomb users are weird. Seriously, using the word female is major creepy. It shows a lack of social skills.

Be a little respectful she's not a skirt she's a piece of ass.

@ravenlight said:

This guy knows what's up.

It's a very military thing to refer to a woman as a "female".

• Make a poll to "decide" if using the word female is weird or not.
• Results don't suit agenda.
• Claim everyone who disagrees is "major creepy".

Does that about sum it up?

Way to jump to conclusions. Bravo. Do you use the same word to describe something every single time? Ever heard of synonyms? Who says that the guy you picked out in the OP, or anyone who answered 'No', only ever refers to women as 'females'? Sure, woman/girl/lady might have sounded more natural in the context of that comment but accusing people of being creeps because they might occasionally use a word, or just don't give a crap if other people do, is going too far.

I think we should bring dame back into use.

@legion_: Actually, I think that's mostly because it's worded badly (sorry OP). I actually answered "No" by accident because of the thread title - the thread title makes it sound like the question is if you can ever use "female" in any context. Hence the number of oneliner posts pointing out that it depends on context.

Lazy by me? Sure. But that's kind of the way people answer polls.

Everything is weird.

well it's easier to say than receptionist.

She was the first (and only) female to ask a question.

I don't see how that's weird.

Hahaha this topic is just an endless maze.

If you say she's the only female to ask a question, feminists would call you mysogynyst because if only one dude asked a question you wouldn't say "he's the only male to ask a question," you'd say guy. At least I would.

If you go with 'girl,' some consider it disrespectful and some get offended if they consider themselves "not young" (happened with me personally). If you go with woman, well, females like to feel young so saying woman makes her feel she's 40. If you use any slang word it's degrading, and 'lady' belongs in the 19th century.

I really think what makes this whole issue fucked up is the double life women lead today. They want equality and respect, but they also want tenderness and compliments. Don't fucking tell me I'm generalizing, I've met over a thousand females aged 18 to 30 just in the last two years and a half, I know what I'm talking about.

It was fine in the first instance you cited, and maybe a little weird in the second instance. But not because the word female itself is weird or anything, but because it just sounded weird in the context of that sentence. If you replaced "female" with "male" in those two instances it would still come off weird in the same exact way.

You might as well have asked "is it weird to use awkward diction?"

Yes. You don't use male, and frankly it's quite demeaning to use a word that doesn't mean Human Female, but instead can be used interchangeably between plants and non Human animals. It's like purposely using the wrong pronoun or some shit.

edit: I'm talking nouns here. Adjective is obviously fine.

lady, or chick would be better.

I voted no, but I was only thinking of "female" as an adjective and not a noun. Used as a noun is weird, I would say, but some say that it's also weird used as an adjective and I don't think so.

I've always wondered why people insist on using woman rather than female when talking of firsts, and other such stuff in the news. It's always been jarring to me since were it a male, I'd say the first male x, or the male x in the same case. Regardless of what people think, I've always handled this by asking if I'd say male in the same case, and that use of female was alright in my book. That is until such a time that there is a female-gendered impersonal pronoun that isn't seen as inherently inappropriate.

@trebert: In your example, the correct use is Female, as you are using it as an adjective. If there was no noun following it, then it would be Woman or Man.

The first woman on the scene.

The first female officer on the scene.

You can't use an adjective on its own as a noun, thus adjective nouns.

It's just a gender identifier, the same as she, her, woman, lady, girl, duderette, etc.

@canteu: You're certainly right. What I was getting with that was more along the lines of saying "woman congressman," or "woman doctor." I think the usage of female, as in the "first female i've seen" is fine because the alternatives are poor. This is because I'd take improper grammarDiction over perceived misogyny. The problem rests in tying the usage of woman together with the usage of man. This results in the use of "woman" sounding worse to the ear in these cases, because I would say first "guy", or "dude", but not "man". You'd use man or woman to distinguish a level of maturity, and using it all the time is just weird in my opinion. Guy doesn't have a female analogue, so that's off the table. Dudette isn't a word, and isn't something you'd ever hear really. Chick, ma'am, and the others like them wouldn't work for obvious reasons. I'd rather use an analogue, that wouldn't make me look like an ass if I knew of one.

Wait....let me get this straight. Are there actually people in this thread saying that female isn't a noun?

@bennyboy: You might want to work on your reading comprehension.

@bennyboy: It is a noun, but more often used as an adjective. Also the fact there are alternative nouns which can be used more accurately in more situations, it's generally a poor choice for a noun.