4 ms·
I'm a little suspicious of the way he keeps referring to men as "men" and women as "females" in the same sentence.
by CommieBobDole 9y ago
I'm a little suspicious of the way he keeps referring to men as "men" and women as "females" in the same sentence.
- bonniemuffin 9y agoIn general the word "females" makes me think of Ferengi and redpillers in a very off-putting way, but maybe it's normal in the academic econ literature.
- CamelCaseName 9y agoDefinitely not. I was chewed out on two separate occasions in my Econ undergrad for using "men" and "females".
- NelsonMinar 9y agohew-mahn fee-males
- Chris2048 9y agoAnd this language policing reminds me of antifa extremism in an also off putting way - but why mention if if not to speculate on a potentially insulting label?
- mpfundstein 9y agoYou may overthink something here
- CommieBobDole 9y agoMaybe - could just be an oversight; he definitely uses the neutral "males" and "females" in most of the article. But the whole men/females usage seems to get a lot of representation among men who have novel theories about interaction of the sexes in general and how women should be required by law to have sex with them specifically.
- Spivak 9y agoNot really, calling women females is a strong signal that a the speaker sees them as part of their outgroup. And because it's not openly stigmatized yet people will say it casually -- you couldn't ask for a better bright line that says "don't date me".
- rabboRubble 9y agoI always attributed the use of "female" and "male" in non-scientific speech to the polic-i-fication of general society. Use of these words in daily speech used to be rare until the TV show cops came about. "BOLOT for white male ages 20-25 with blue jeans and a white T-shirt". Also smacked to me of greater police contact in a captive population where mannerisms of the higher status police being copied by those subjugated. Totally my opinion and could be completely off-base, but seems to ring true to me.
- asternfern 9y agoHuh, good to know that the term female can be interpreted in a negative light. In my mind, it is fairly neutral, same as male vs. man. I normally use it when I mean to include both younger girls and adult women.
- Chris2048 9y agoWhat makes you think that is true?
- firethief 9y agoIt's noticeable because it's a surface feature (it's the color of the bikeshed), but it's consistent with the article's whole attitude: this is a man studying females on behalf of men (explicitly; see intro paragraph). In that context, I find the word choice unsurprising.