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Is it offensive to refer to women as "females", as I've seen posted at the entrance of a night club:

"Females under the age of twenty-one will have to...."

Centaurus
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  • Would you yourself be offended if you were referred to a male? – tchrist Aug 16 '14 at 17:26
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    No, I wouldn't. As I wouldn't be offended if someone said I was "a prick" in a joking way. Then again, I believe a woman would be very much offended if I said she was a "c-word" even jokingly. As you see, your comparison doesn't answer my question. – Centaurus Aug 16 '14 at 17:38
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    There is no word that won't offend someone. I suppose Female is the least likely to offend out of Female, Women, Ladies, Girls as it only categorises by sex. – Frank Aug 16 '14 at 18:00
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    It's incredibly difficult to know the answer to these questions in English, due to the recent "political correctness" culture. For me, "women" would be the better choice on the sign in question. – Fattie Aug 17 '14 at 08:06
  • Actually, "Ladies" would also work here. – Fattie Aug 17 '14 at 08:06

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Although OED traces the usage of female as a noun even further back than its usage as an adjective, the adjectival usage has long been more prevalent. Partly for this reason, referring to a woman as a female tends to focus attention on just a single attribute, one that she shares with many other animals and even plants, at the expense of other attributes that she shares with other (male) members of her own species, such as the capacity for articulate speech.

Thus using a single attribute as a metonym or synecdoche for a person is inherently depersonalizing, so yes I would avoid it as likely to cause offense. Examples vary from the club sign’s calling women “females,” to a waiter’s referring to a diner, or a surgeon’s referring to a patient, by the name of the entrée or operation ordered.

Brian Donovan
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  • Not wanting to put you on the spot, but can you think of better term that encompasses the group of people the message is intended for? – Frank Aug 16 '14 at 18:20
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    @Frank: If, as I am inclined to suppose, this sign lays down some rule for female human beings who have reached what in the U.S. is the age of majority and the franchise (18), but have not yet reached the legal drinking age (21), which is after all quite relevant for a “night club,” then the obvious term would seem to be women. Why on earth do you suppose that more offensive than females? – Brian Donovan Aug 16 '14 at 20:23
  • Referring to someone as 'a male' or 'a female' is not depersonalizing in the same way that referring to someone as 'a gay' or 'a black' is, it is more like referring to someone as 'a Belgian'. There is no other short term for males or females of all ages. So thinking of this as even moderately parallel is obnoxious hypersensitivity. – Jon Jay Obermark Aug 16 '14 at 23:54
  • @BrianDonovan I have the feeling that women not only categorises by sex but also by an informal amount of age, as you say it could be 18 or 21 or any number. I only suppose it could be more offensive as there now have more options to be offended at; not just sex but also an implied level of maturity. – Frank Aug 17 '14 at 05:08
  • Why the "apostrophe + s" in "sign's" ? (I'm here to learn) – Centaurus Aug 17 '14 at 12:57
  • @Luis, I was using possessive with gerund: see here. – Brian Donovan Aug 18 '14 at 18:58
  • I see, Brian. I missed it. I suppose "club sign calling..." would also be current usage, wouldn't it ? – Centaurus Aug 18 '14 at 22:48
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No, it's not offensive at all to refer to women as females. Female is just a little more formal or clinical.

Peramia
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At night clubs in the United States (more or less depending on the type of clientele) female is an overtly polite substitute for bitch (which at some night clubs [again, depending on the clientele] is a neutral term for a woman of reproductive age), since many people consider bitch an impolite term. In the right kind of night club, calling a woman a female comes with the subtext of 'I am not going to use the word bitch because I am not ignorant like that.'

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    I'm fascinated by this answer. 'Bitch is a neutral term for a woman of reproductive age'. Really? Neutral? Do the women in question think it's neutral and use the term themselves, without any kind of self-deprecating nuance, or is this a term used by men for women? What do they call them once they hit the menopause? And also 'many people consider "bitch" an impolite term' presumably means some people think it's a perfectly OK, polite term? – Mynamite Aug 17 '14 at 21:11
  • @Mynamite yes, used by both men and women. You can also find night clubs where motherfucker is a neutral word meaning 'person'. For the record I call women women. –  Aug 17 '14 at 23:26
  • We move in different worlds :). I live and learn. – Mynamite Aug 17 '14 at 23:29
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I think women is preferable, for the reasons given by @Brian - unless the sign is also aimed at female horses, guinea pigs, armadillos etc. Maybe the real issue here is: What will the women under 21 have to do? Do men under 21 have to do the same? If so, how are they referred to, as males or as men? And if not, why not?

To answer @Frank 's comment above (sorry to put it here but my comments won't load for some reason) - if female is 'the least likely' to offend out of 'women, ladies and girls', what non-offensive term is anyone supposed to use to the half of the human race that is not male?

Mynamite
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  • My comment was intended to show that any word can (and almost definitely will) offend someone. There is no strictly non-offensive term, some people will be offended by any term you use. It is only my supposition that Female is less likely to offend as it comes with only one option (XX or not) while Women, Ladies, Girls comes with other senses of not only Female but of an age, class, maturity etc that gives them a narrower scope and therefore might exclude some people (or include some people who don't think they are). – Frank Aug 17 '14 at 05:16
  • @Frank I think you are probably right in one sense. The very fact that these words are loaded is why certain females/ladies/women/girls take offence. A man is a man is a man. He might occasionally be a gentleman/dude/bloke/guy, but no man that I know would take offence at being called a 'man'. On the other hand I know plenty of women who would be deeply offended at being referred to as a 'bitch' - see jlovegren's answer. – Mynamite Aug 17 '14 at 21:20
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If the night club means women under the age of 22, then it can say that: women under the age of 22. If, however, it means any female person under the age of 22 then females under the age of 22 is appropriate. (Here, females is presumed to mean female people and not, say, female goldfish.)

If you were to complete the message on the sign for us then we might be able to guess which is more appropriate. The "..." might be something that clearly applies only to women. Or it might be something that applies to a female person of any age.

In the first case, one might wonder what the night club considers to be the minimum age for a woman (18? 13? 20?), or what other qualification besides age it might use for that.

An alternative for the second case is to say women and girls under the age of 22.

Drew
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