Re:The Apple Watch
by hayleyanthony on Tuesday September 09, 2014 @11:18PM
(#8294743)
Please try to say women, not "females." I don't think you meant anything by it but when you always see that usage, (common in tech spaces) it starts to feel a little dehumanizing.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=female
From Wikipedia:
"It is not etymologically related to the word male, but in the late 14th century the spelling was altered in English to parallel the spelling of male."
I honestly don't understand how "female" is any worse then "woman" honest question I'm easily the least sexist person you could run into (ask my wife) but sometimes it seems like no mater what you're still going to offend someone. :(
I think the issue is that "female" can refer to any species, whereas "woman" refers only to humans. So when someone obliquely refers to women and someone responds "oh, you're talking about females!", the subtext is that they have now realized that we're talking about women, but haven't quite realized that women are people too.
It would be the same as calling someone a "human" rather than a "person". Like aliens do in the movies. Maybe you don't feel that's dehumanizing, but I think a lot of people would.
(Classicist pet peeve: A word's etymology has nothing to do with its modern denotation and connotation.)
Personally, I like to imagine the post is being written by a Ferengi. There's more than sufficient evidence for it.
Oh lord, get over it. Female is degrading now?
Re:The Apple Watch
by yusefnapora on Wednesday September 10, 2014 @10:54AM
(#8296827)
Well, it does make you sound like a Ferengi.
What's a Ferengi?
Edit: Nevermind. I Googled it. Star Trek alien.
There's plenty of other languages where the words for "female" and "male" are different for people and animals.