• UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    16
    ·
    2 days ago

    Do women wanna be called “women” tho? I don’t mean this rhetorically, but as a genuine question.

    I for example, would hate to be called a “man”. It just makes me sound old. I would prefer being referred to as “male”, or anything that isn’t the word “man”. This is applicable to a lot of my friends too. Don’t women feel the same way?

    • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      2 days ago

      I don’t see what’s wrong with calling men ‘men’. I don’t mind it at all, seeing as it’s a descriptor of what I am using the English language. What’s your problem with the word?

      • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Not a native English speaker, so I guess I’m understanding the word wrong (judging from the other comments).

        It’s just that calling someone a “man/woman” makes it seem like I’m calling them old? Like… I don’t think we associate the word “man” with youth, right? Like… Whenever someone refers to me as a man (which is quite uncommon thankfully), I cringe a little inside.

        • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          ‘Man’ refers to human individuals, especially adult male humans. So the word is pretty flexible, and can technically refer to any human regardless of age.

    • Microw@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Not sure where you grew up culturally, but that seems like a very foreign concept to me personally. We use “boys”/“guys” and “girls” to demote young men and women. No one here would get the idea to use “male” and “female”, which to our ears are purely biological words.

      • Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Here in Australia we use male/female all the time.

        I physically cringe when I see Americans say stuff like “woman politician” instead of “female politician”. It sounds so grammatically wrong, that you legit sound like a caveman impression (ex. “Grug go car”).

        Having said that, we would also never refer to women as females. There’s some grammar rules that dictate when we use either, but female is certainly the more common term.

        • esa@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          9 hours ago

          Yeah, to my ESL ears man/woman are nouns, not adjectives, and using them as adjectives comes off as childish.

          That said, “female X” can also sound clumsy, if it’s implied that a bare X is male, e.g. “politician” and “female politician”, vs male and female politician. There was a twitter account calling itself a “male programmer” which took the piss out of that trope.

          • Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            100%, I also hate the stupid shit like “actress” as if we need a whole new fucking word when you can just say actor for everyone.

      • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 days ago

        Well, English is not the native language where I’m from. So perhaps it must be the cultural context for the word “man”? I mean, we don’t use the words “male-female” much outside biological contexts as well… I’ve just rarely seen anyone use the words “man/woman” for anyone our age (we’re young adults for context).

    • cmbabul@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’ve never encountered a man or woman that hated being called whichever was appropriate

      • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Must be cultural then (as another commentator pointed out). I’m not a native English speaker. Perhaps it must be different meanings associated to words influenced by my native language? Not sure haha

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      Apparently not. The world would be a much better place if we all stopped making such a big deal about specific trigger words and focused on the ideas being communicated. If someone’s intent was to be an asshole then sure, get the pitchforks out, but make it clear it’s the idea that’s bad. Don’t just scapegoat the word. If they weren’t obviously trying to be a dick then calibrate your response accordingly.

      To put it another way, if you’re upset about the use of a word that a scientist might use to describe something then you’re probably being overly sensitive.

      • riwo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        science is often biased by cultural ideas. biology, medicine, and psychology, have been used to pathologise or naturalise things along social lines. this is also reflected in the language they created.

        i think it is important for this language to be reevaluated, as culture and the scientific view on the world changes.

        with the distinction between gender and sex becomming more popular, having compleletly destinct words might for example be positive…

      • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 days ago

        Listen, I’m not against using any words. I’m just for using words, that if used cause no harm, and lead to people feeling better. We are emotional beings and it is unnecessary to try to pretend that we aren’t.

        If someone wants me to call them “X”, I would try to do that if it is not too out of my way, right? That’s all.

      • 1984@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        You are correct but social media lives and thrives on the idea of making people overreact to things.

        Genders, races, politics… It’s all literally designed for people to argue with eachother while the owners profit on their “discussions” (actual discussions are banned because sensitive snowflakes needs protection).

    • BeN9o@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      How have you applied age to the word “man”? Unless you’re not an adult and “man” to you means being an adult?

      • Microw@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        Guy probably is between 16 and 25 and doesn’t want to be an adult lol

    • MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      It’s all about context. There are options that are context and age appropriate that aren’t condescending or clinically reductive.

      Men’s bathroom and Women’s bathroom > male bathroom and female bathroom

      “Hey, guys/gents”, “hey, girls/ladies” > “hey, men”, “hey, women”

      First woman President > first female President > first girl President

      • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        Nah, I identify as male. It’s just that the visual of a “man” for me is an older bearded dude with a deep voice… which I’m not…

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          I’m just speaking from experience here. Never had a problem with other masc identifiers, but something about “man” squicked me out. It always felt like becoming a man was something far off, but I kept getting older and it never happened…

          Now I’m on hormones and am a woman and things are fine. Not saying this is your situation, but it was mine.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          It happened to me. Being a boy never bothered me, but as I got older becoming a “man” made me dysphoric.

          So I became a woman instead.

          • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            Fair enough. For me, any gendered language makes me dysphoric when I am not that gender. But of course gender is a very individual and personal thing.