You are correct, female does not connote human so therefore is not as appropriate as woman.

Oh fer the love of Pete....you ain't got nothin' better to do than sit around an ruminate on which words make your little PC meter wiggle and which ones don't? Why don'tcha just go fer a run or sumthin'? Do sumthin' useful...like visualize whirled peas. I'll bet yer one of them, whadda ya call 'em, mental masturbaters, ain'tcha?

IMO, they're just words.

Female, woman, girl, gal, chica, chick, lady, babe - they all fit at one point or another

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

ho, slappa, skank, slut



the list goes on :P

How about

Sheila

Old cheese (if it's your mom)

a rag (for a slut)

a tart (not really nice)

?

That's all for Strine today ;-)

Interesting. I usually say "females" when I am discussing something that I do not wish for the things associated with "woman" to be applied (in order to avoid any branching debates that may follow).

Equally interesting ... I had never even thought of the possbility of being offended when I am referred to as "male".

I would think that when someone says "female", that the "human" part is implied.

From this moment on I shall attempt to refer to women as simply "XX", as to not offend anyone.

Goodnight XX's and XY's. See ya tomorrow.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

English is not my native language, however, I will try to contribute.

Woman is a noun and female is a word that refers to a noun. Unfortunately, I don't know the English word for that. Just like in car and blue car. Women is a word in the category of car - a noun - and female is a word in the category of blue - for which I don't know the English expression.

Can somebody help me out, and find the right English word? In Dutch it's 'zelfstandig naamwoord' and 'bijvoegelijk naamwoord'.

Me old Dutch

Trouble & Strive

Grumble & Grunt (!)

Me Old Dear



& that's just the Cockney versions, I will translate #2, but you will have to imagine #3!

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

The word you're looking for is 'adjective'. But note that an adjective can sometimes be used as a substantive (ie, without a noun). Eg, when selecting a puppy, 'Would you prefer the male or the female? The one, or the other?' Or consider Eric the Red, Alexander the Great, etc.

P.S. to others: 'definitely' is definitely not spelled definately!

I agree with the original poster, the word female is often misused on this forum. A quote out of another thread: "Every single female who I train with ...". That should be "every single woman who I train with..." .

The posters who mentioned adjectives and nouns had it right.

J

Of course, then the 'young ladies' or 'girls' would be offended because woman has a 'older' connotation to it. ;-)

"skirts"

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

What a waste of bandwidth...the PC police should be here soon.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

What about those who are not a girl, not yet a woman?

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zing!

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Hey man, every time you open a thread marked "OT" you risk a waste of bandwidth. You knew the risks going in.

And for the record, my request is not even close to as "PC" as it could be. I could say I'd like to be called a "womyn" because the word "women" has the word "men" in it. I did not ask that.

Ah, you forget, they are MEN and therefore they feel they must contribute to a thread they have no vested interest in.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Yep, I knew most of you would completely not care about this and some would attack. I made my point, I didn't ask you to agree, I only asked you to think about it. And you also had the choice not to read the post at all. So bfh if thirty seconds of your time (or maybe now one minute) was wasted thinking about the difference between the words. For those of you who did post in support, thanks!

If you're interested in a more eloquent explanation of my point: http://www.freep.com/...o/des25_20030925.htm. It has an interesting note about what "male" versus "man" sometimes means.

You'll note the time at which I posted this (or maybe you won't). I already did my workout, nice try. By the way, don't knock mental masturbation until you've tried it.

So is bitches ok too? That's a word.

Ah, you forget, they are MEN and therefore they feel they must contribute to a thread they have no vested interest in.

To what gender was the OP directed to?

My favorite threads are the ones titled "Question for the ladies ..." and it's about what to wear to a race, etc ... and 75% responses are from men.

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I really do make an attempt to not intentionally say things that will offend, because I'll say enough stuff just talking normally that people will find offensive if they read too much into it. It seems that there are folks out there that are looking for something to read into what other people say.

I am really struggling to see where the usage of "male" and "female" for "man" and "woman" in human society is all that pressing of an issue. Given the abundance of words that seem all too commonplace and 'cool' that refer to women/females (even self-referred), it's almost stunning that "female" and "male" could be offensive.

So, I need to ask ...

It's really just "females" that strikes a sour chord.

Is it offensive or just improper grammer?

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IMO, they're just words.

Female, woman, girl, gal, chica, chick, lady, babe - they all fit at one point or another

Stop being reasonable and get back to being "womanly". =)

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

I recommend you stop posting and go for a bike ride. Even for a woman your IMUSA bike split sucked.

If one goes out of there way to be offended one often can find a way. I thought about it, read the article, and I still think you are simply wrong. And you may want to check the definition of male. Remarkably, both sexes are defined by their sexual capabilities. That would be because that is what, bilogically, makes the sexes different.

Although I picked a couple definitions of woman out for you that you may want to be offended by.

Here are some definitions from dictionary.com.

n.

1. A member of the sex that produces ova or bears young.
2. A woman or girl.
3. Botany. A plant having only pistillate flowers.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.



Function: noun
: an individual that bears young or produces eggs as distinguished from one that produces sperm; especially : a woman or girl as distinguished from a man or boy


Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.



wom·an

A female servant or subordinate.

3: a human female who does housework;

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Joe, on behalf of adverbs everywhere, please stop using "there" as a pronoun.

Now excuse me, I need to check the male & female leads to my stereo speakers and see if they're reproducing; maybe I'll be up to a 7.1 system by the end of the day.