5 ms·

You may overthink something here

• CommieBobDole 9y ago
  Maybe - 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 ago
  Not 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 ago
    I 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 ago
    Huh, 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 ago
    What makes you think that is true?