My claim is that this connotation of female is so foreign to such a vast majority of American English speakers that it simply does not exist in ordinary language and discourse among us. I offer a few examples that support (not prove) my claim below in my latest response to Vivien. Just because Vivien objects to it, and perhaps her sister, doesn't undermine my argument. It could be perceived as a bit of slippery slope, granted, since it sounds like I'm arguing from a majority, but that's really not it. It doesn't pass basic phenomenological muster- I've never encountered it before, and I am fairly knowledgeable and even have a passing familiarity (and sympathy) with the arguments and language of radical feminism.
This strikes me as rather contradictory with your comments below, at least if we limit the argument to the use of "the female" alone. You agreed that "the female" is unusual, though "not unheard of", for every-day use referring to a woman. Is it any surprise then that when the term *is* used referring to a woman, in a sensitive context, people are inclined to associate it with the more common meaning? And - I'm just theorizing here, obviously I don't actually know how exactly the connotation was created in my mind - I suppose that after having concluded that "the female" was derogatory, I concluded that "females" in the plural must be too, not realizing that there might be a difference somehow.
Your never having encountered it before is of course an important factor to note, but Vivien and Aeryn have encountered it before, so it's really anecdotal evidence on either side. I have also encountered it before, and unlike what you said in your reply to Vivien below (in direct contradiction to what I had already told you, I might add), that's got nothing to do with my native language, which doesn't have any cognates of "female". Since you continually stress that you are talking about American English, I should of course add that my own English is a mixture of British and American, but judging by snoop's reply, this isn't an issue of British vs. American.
I was utterly shocked to hear of this connotation, and stated with such sweeping and condescending authority. As were the other Americans on this thread. Look at how they respond. They never say "oh *eyeroll* this old canard again, you people are wrong". They all say they simply have not heard of it before, and repeatedly, and that they don't understand. Celia even attempts to untangle the ground on which Vivien rests her objections below, but the latter keeps vacillating.
Actually, if you read Celia's posts properly, you'll find that she's quite aware of the issue - she says she understands how it sounds, and judging from her rant on the issue, this really isn't the first time that she's discussed or thought about the negative connotations of the word. So that makes three Americans who *are* familiar with this connotation, even if one of those thinks it's stupid.
And frankly, I don't see Vivien "vacillating".
In any case, there is an element of δημοκρατια to Vivien's argument. I wouldn't dismiss it so quickly if I had been familiar with the connotations, or even if I had heard it brought up more often. It seems like that connotation is incredibly archaic I think and only exists for a few people. But it is either a part of ordinary language and discourse or not, and I really can't see that it is.
Evidently it's a connotation that doesn't exist for some, which I admit is a surprise to me, and perhaps also to Vivien. Equally evidently, it does exist for others. No doubt there will be social or geographical groups of people among whom it's more widespread than among others, our sample of people here is rather too small to say more than that...
(Also, lastly, isn't English a second language for Aeryn and Vivien both? I could be mistaken, and it's irrelevant to the main argument I made just above, but still.)
You'd have to ask them. I was under the impression that they were more fluent in English than in Russian and that for all extents and purposes English was their native language.
This is very interesting. Generally it tracks with my experience very well. There are definitely some slightly different usages between "female" and "woman", though none as Vivien articulated, I think. There is certainly a more general and abstract sense to "female", I think, and it's definitely more commonly used in the plural with humans. It's not unheard of in the singular, though. I think it's not uncommon in the African American community incidentally, and I don't think it has any negative overtones, though I could be wrong about that.
I don't think that it's a coincidence that, for instance, the author of the article that sparked this discussion talks about a text "written by a female with femalist themes". Surely you agree that "written by a woman with feminist themes" would've been the expected phrasing, and that the author is making a point of some sort by using "female" and then coining his neologism "femalist" (Wiktionary informs me that this word was in fact in use in a unrelated sense in the past, but for all extents and purposes I think we can agree it's a neologism here).
And then there is more (anecdotal, true) evidence: for instance, one of the hits for your search on "female that" yields the phrase "sex-crazed female". As I suspected, this seems to be more common than "sex-crazed woman" - even though "female" is used much less than "woman". Which reminds me of the fixed expression "red-blooded male". In both cases, it rather seems to me that the usage of "male/female" rather than "man/woman" is not coincidental, and has to do with the focus on sex.
In short, even among those who never thought of the noun "female" as offensive in any way, I would think that there is still a difference in usage between "female" and "woman", with "woman" being clearly the more neutral and cautious term to use in a discussion of feminism (in a medical discussion, not so much). But I could be wrong.
I wonder if the use of the article is relevant here. My guess is that you will get more results relating to animals and biology if you use the definite article "the female" and a slightly more even spread between human and non-human with the indefinite article "a female". I think there might be a carryover from Indo-European grammar that gives a noun paired with the article a generic sense. I know Greek definitely does it (something like ὁ ἄνθρωπος can just mean "man" in general), does German also do it?
If I understand correctly what you're talking about with the Greek example, then I believe German does it, yes - Dutch does for sure. I don't know that that has much to do with it, though, because if you focus only on the difference between definite and indefinite articles, the same should apply to "woman", which isn't the case.
Also, I decided to remove the article entirely and simply google "female that". Since "is" often carries a generic sense it was best to use a relative, and one that can relate to man, animal, or object equally well in common parlance, and let the internet decide. I didn't bother to count, but it seems like at least one half of the results are referring to humans, maybe as much as two thirds. It's still a bit awkward sounding though to my ear though, and no matter how you query the singular it still gets split at least 50/50 between humans and animals, so your observation is definitely on the money.
That strikes me as even worse - that people would use "that" instead of "who". Of course, that's quite common in English in general, so it might be a bit silly to focus on it here, but at least with "a female who", the "who" makes it unambiguously about humans. "A female that" really sounds like you're talking about animals, but evidently it is indeed not unheard of to use it for humans.
The Hunger Games gets a ... different kind of review.
03/04/2012 03:37:39 PM
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"Written by a female with femalist themes"
03/04/2012 04:38:54 PM
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I grant that I haven't read the Hunger Games yet
03/04/2012 05:10:38 PM
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It's not. That's what shallow idiots say about things where women have power or physical skills *NM*
04/04/2012 03:45:22 PM
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I can only speak for the film, which was not feminist.
03/04/2012 06:01:18 PM
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Where do I start?
03/04/2012 07:43:18 PM
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But that is exactly what feminist means "it could have been a boy just as well"
04/04/2012 01:42:43 PM
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Makes me almost wish I knew the source material so I could judge what he is saying
03/04/2012 10:50:48 PM
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Why don't you think the Hunger Games are feminist?
03/04/2012 11:17:53 PM
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Why would I consider it to be femenist?
04/04/2012 01:51:24 AM
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I just don't consider feminism as something that has to be radical.
04/04/2012 05:42:59 AM
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Completely agree with your first paragraph
04/04/2012 08:22:35 AM
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To you "feminist" is a dirty word? To me, it means acceptable. Differences in definitions I think
04/04/2012 01:50:32 PM
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Unfortunately truly ordinary female characters are so rare that the exceptions stand out
04/04/2012 01:49:16 PM
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Fair enough
04/04/2012 02:33:22 PM
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Stop using female as a noun!
04/04/2012 03:51:13 PM
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It's stuff like that that makes you lose cred
04/04/2012 05:26:24 PM
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It's fairly derogatory as a noun, though, have to agree with Vivien on that one.
04/04/2012 07:30:18 PM
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I don't think Jens was really using it that way, though
04/04/2012 07:34:28 PM
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Of course he didn't intend it that way, but that's how it sounds.
04/04/2012 08:06:03 PM
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I understand that, but it's still such a ridiculous thing to get fussed over
04/04/2012 09:20:01 PM
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You are rather exaggerating just how "fussed" anyone did get, you do realize.
04/04/2012 09:51:22 PM
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Her tone was not just "informative". It was accusatory
04/04/2012 10:17:57 PM
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Female is perfectly acceptable to use in a medical/clinical setting. *NM*
04/04/2012 10:36:57 PM
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so if your problem is people using it disparagingly...
04/04/2012 10:45:10 PM
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That's not what I said.
04/04/2012 10:51:41 PM
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Which flies in the face of it's ordinary usage, which smacks of needless revisionism.
06/04/2012 09:42:15 AM
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Accusatory of what.i think you meant annoyed. So youre annoyed she was annoyed? Let's out this to re *NM*
09/04/2012 12:44:17 PM
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Are you a native English speaker, Legolas? (Clarified to preempt possible internet tears)
06/04/2012 09:29:28 AM
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Nope. (edit)
06/04/2012 07:23:54 PM
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Re: Nope. (edit)
07/04/2012 04:51:30 AM
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"Female that"? That's even worse.
07/04/2012 11:42:00 AM
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Ok.
07/04/2012 03:27:16 PM
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Let's try and whittle this down some so as to help you with the quotes.
07/04/2012 05:42:32 PM
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However he meant it, it was unpleasant to read. Just use "woman" instead. *NM*
05/04/2012 08:13:13 PM
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Re: It's fairly derogatory as a noun, though, have to agree with Vivien on that one.
05/04/2012 02:21:21 AM
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English is not French, and it's not German. Particularly the connotations of American English words
06/04/2012 09:39:00 AM
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The prospect of "losing cred" is not going to stop me from speaking my mind.
04/04/2012 10:30:03 PM
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That's the first time I have ever heard/seen anyone say that.
04/04/2012 08:19:02 PM
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Re: That's the first time I have ever heard/seen anyone say that.
04/04/2012 10:48:07 PM
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wait, so now you're claiming it's a grammatical thing? *NM*
04/04/2012 10:58:31 PM
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Re: That's the first time I have ever heard/seen anyone say that.
05/04/2012 02:08:26 AM
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Re: Stop using female as a noun!
05/04/2012 02:18:47 PM
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If dislike of the use of female as a noun makes me crazy town, I'm not the only crazy in here.
05/04/2012 05:59:16 PM
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Oh, so now we're using 'dislike' instead of 'should'. It's funny how you fell back on that.
06/04/2012 10:01:59 AM
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Fascinating.
06/04/2012 09:54:47 PM
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Re: Fascinating.
07/04/2012 03:54:26 AM
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Just in case (however slim that chance may be) you are genuinely interested in citations/references.
07/04/2012 05:34:37 AM
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What a joke. Do you even know what grammar is?
07/04/2012 05:57:40 AM
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Oh, come off it. This should be the point where you admit to being wrong.
07/04/2012 12:11:07 PM
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Sorry, no. Read better.
07/04/2012 02:23:10 PM
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Re: If dislike of the use of female as a noun makes me crazy town, I'm not the only crazy in here.
09/04/2012 03:09:06 AM
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Nothing wrong with your use of female. You should ignore those crazy foreigners saying otherwise. *NM*
06/04/2012 02:49:41 PM
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I think I'll start saying males instead of men. If the males here don't mind? *NM*
09/04/2012 12:58:54 PM
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You didn't see thmovie? She is far from passive
04/04/2012 01:46:16 PM
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Re: You didn't see thmovie? She is far from passive
04/04/2012 02:23:33 PM
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Interesting. I really need to read these books soon, evidently. *NM*
03/04/2012 10:52:43 PM
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And it appears the writer of the article completely missed a central point of the story *spoilers*
04/04/2012 05:44:40 AM
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The reviewer is kind of full of it, but makes a good point about the character
04/04/2012 04:22:30 PM
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