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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by Trincapinones@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word "female", is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?

I don't know if this is the best place to ask, if it's not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^

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[–] Anamnesis@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

You can soften "a black" or "a Chinese" entirely by adding "person" to the end of it. English is weird.

[–] TheBananaKing@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

Right, because that makes it an adjective.

[–] seliaste@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That's werid because in french that's not what we use in everyday life. We say "Un japonais" for example, not "Une personne japonaise" which kinda sounds unnecessary