They're referencing the structure of the phrase "Driving While Black". It gets the feeling of oppression across in 3 words in a way that "Speaking as a Woman" would not.

I guess they wanted to mirror the "Driving While Black" phrase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_While_Black).

I think the title was meant to make the reader feel uncomfortable, and to echo the concept of "Driving While Black".

Yeah I agree the term female has this almost creepy de-humanizing sound to it.

In other languages such as French, female is applied exclusively to non-human animals.

Yes, but in French, scissors and chairs have genders as well. The French language experience of genders simply does not translate to English.

So it's not just me but the grammar of other languages as well! Good to know.

Speaking as a male, I would prefer we use the terms male and female. Because they don't carry all the anglo cultural connotations that come along with "man" and "woman".

I think the "speaking" part clarifies the species.

I don't think so, apes speak to each other and you cannot understand them. Dolphins speak to each other and you cannot understand them. Speaking is not a human only action.

While yes, they were going for a poetic comparison to 'Driving whilst black', I'd prefer we use 'woman' as the noun and 'female' as the adjective. 'Woman driver' and 'woman CEO' are phrases we see that don't have the counterparts 'man driver' or 'man CEO', for example.

> While yes, they were going for a poetic comparison to 'Driving whilst black', I'd prefer we use 'woman' as the noun and 'female' as the adjective.

It was using "female" as the adjective. If it was being used as a noun, it would have to be "Driving while a female".

Sorry, I meant to make that more as a broader point, not about that phrase specifically.

This type of specienormativism is an example of the pure bigotry that is holding all of us back! Who are you to say that the speaker is not a female giraffe? Why do you assume she wouldn't be?

We all have the right to self-define, and then brutally ostracize people who reject our self-definitions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin

> The term female is without species.

Since the issue being discussed was gender, not species, that's appropriate.

Note that you changed it from "while" implying temporary, to "as" implying permanence. The temporary-ness of the title has a very strange angle having nothing to do with the story. Given the title I expected a story about the experiences of MtoF trans- people speaking out. Which would have probably been more interesting than the actual story.