"What's your take on men who refer to women as 'females'? Dude hit me up on a dating site, and his profile, when describing what he's looking for, referred to women as females through the whole thing. Why couldn't he just say 'ladies' or 'women'?"--D.F.
Some form of this question comes up on a regular basis. My usual response is something like, "Run." Perhaps it's the nerdy English major still living within me, but I believe that the words people use to describe themselves and others can tell you a lot about them.
For instance, the guy who reached out to you on the dating site is clearly there to meet women -- the proper name for adult, female human beings -- and yet he chose to use a term to describe them that he seemingly doesn't realize highly irritates many women. It's as if he doesn't have a basic, functional understanding of what makes most thinking women tick or, better yet, what turns them off.
That you are startled by his use of "female" in a nonscientific context implies that you and I may have similar thoughts on the use of the word. To me, it's objectifying women, robbing us of a bit of our personhood. And that makes it sound woefully misogynistic.
That, of course, is a red flag, one that many people don't recognize. The heterosexual man who enjoys sex with women but doesn't actually like women -- or, er, "females," as he might call them -- is initially a bit of an enigma. I believe that calling women "females" is one of his calling cards. Whenever I hear it, it's as if the guy is trying really hard not to say "b--ch."
Referring to women as "females" also implies a lack of formal education to me. Perhaps he went to school but didn't pay much attention. And perhaps I should infer by the way he uses "female" in a sentence that he is speaking of a woman, such as, "I like a female who knows how to let me lead." Often, though, I find myself wondering, "What kind of female? A female cat? A female zebra? A female buffalo?" I'm never sure. But a female human never really pops into my head, probably because, again, female humans are called women, and it's unclear to me why anyone would go out of his way to refer to actual women as anything else.
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