this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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I cringe every time I hear another guy refer to women like this

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[–] odium@programming.dev 171 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (14 children)

It's fine if it's consistent imo.

Men and women - 👍

Males and females - 👍

Boys and girls - 👍

Guys and gals - 👍

Men and females - 👎

Men and girls - 👎

Men and chicks - 👎

[–] salvaria@lemmy.blahaj.zone 118 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Seadogs and wenches - 🏴‍☠️

[–] lolrightythen@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 79 points 2 months ago

Comrades - ☭

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago (2 children)

males and females is still psychotic if you're not specifically talking science like biology, statistics, etc. adjectives as nouns are rarely a good sign in general; it's almost always derogative.

also boys and girls would be fine except most people who use (or claim to use) boys do it in familiar sense only. they'd never call a 40 year old jacked man they don't know a boy, but they'd easily call a grown ass woman they don't know a girl. exceptions are some phrases like "big boy" or "my boy" in endearing sense but that's not how "girl" is generally used, which is a substitute for "woman".

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A lot of prior military folks will use males and females just because that's how it's been drilled into them. Male and female latrines, not men and women's bathrooms. Male and female barracks, not men and women's dorms. Male and female standards, etc etc.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

dehumanization is part of military. that's not really an argument for it.

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

adjectives as nouns are rarely a good sign in general

I don't think that's true unless you mean within the context of referring to people or something, e.g. the blacks, the poors. But then stuff like "the rich" and "the unemployed" I don't really take issue with.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

yeah, you're right but they're two different cases. notice how when it's right you don't pluralize it with an -s because some adjectives have a form of a plural noun, so they don't have a singular form: "a poor" or "a black" is just yikes. you can find words like "rich" as plural nouns apart from the adjective forms in the dictionary. you might find "female" and "black" as a noun for people too, but they should be marked offensive either directly or in usage notes.

so that's the distinction. "black" or "female" don't exist as plural nouns like "the rich" or "the blessed".

interestingly enough there are exceptions. there is no plural noun "the gay" but "gays" usually isn't offensive as a noun, but also "a gay" is weird and offensive. language is complicated.

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I believe "the gays" used to be offensive, and I did notice that myself but it doesn't make sense to met that that would be the distinction!

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

i just suggested it as a shorthand. the actual distinction is whether the word is generally used as a noun as well as adjective, and when it is, usually it's used as a plural noun.

it makes sense because plural nouns usually are a quick way to refer to a section of a population that share an aspect. but using an adjective as a singular noun has the connotation of reducing someone to that one aspect of them, which is the adjective. and so using an adjective as a noun with an -s pluralization implies there's also a singular form which is usually offensive.

language is fluid and it evolves, so nothing here is a hard rule and there will be exceptions, and things might change with time. this is mostly based on observation and convention.

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not convinced that there's even a soft rule; I think it's just a case of the one or the other way of doing it nebulously sticking, like how sometimes you form a noun with -ness and sometimes you do it with -hood. Which now I think about it is more or less what you're saying, but I don't think it's done consciously at any rate.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

language conventions are rarely conscious. they just happen. every now and then there's a campaign for our against using certain words or phrases; sometimes they stick and sometimes they don't. but those are conscious i guess. mostly though it just happens organically.

like a perfectly normal word becomes vulgar in time if enough people just say it a certain way. it's not like people suddenly hold a meeting and decide this word is bad now. it just starts to feel like it after a while, so it eventually becomes so.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The gays is weird because like so much terminology referring to queer people it’s reclaimed. And as with all language reclaimed in or near living memory the offensive use persists. Just like how “the queer community” is neutral as is “my sister is queer”, but “fuck you queer” or “I ain’t no queer” both use the word in its unreclaimed state, so too can “the gays” go. With it I tend to be primed for someone who is either familiar with the queer community or to hear some horribly offensive shit.

The thing is we got really good at reclaiming things in a way that I don’t know of any other group being as good at

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

yeah it depends i guess. saying "gays and lesbians" in passing is usually fine. but still, while you could say something like "this policy is discriminatory against gays" and not get much protest, the preferred use would still be "gay people".

[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 36 points 2 months ago

Tamales and females

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Men and chicks - 👎

What about "dudes and chicks?"

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Picture you gettin down inside a picture tube.

[–] ToffeeIsForClosers@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

“Dudes and dudettes” seems more on the level.

[–] LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org 21 points 2 months ago

Guys and Dolls - 👐 (jazz hands)

[–] vale@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago

dudes and dudettes?

[–] heavy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago

Context is king, so I don't think this is universal. Decent list though.

[–] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago

Chaps and dames

[–] li10@feddit.uk 11 points 2 months ago

Bros and broads - 🤔

[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The ONLY time it’s fine is if it’s in a medical report or scientific paper. Written by actual doctors or scientists. And it is done to dehumanize the subject to make it easier for, say, a medical examiner to write a report without breaking down.

Using male and female for people is inheritantly dehumanizing, and that’s only ok in very specific circumstances.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What's the male equivalent of Femoids? Is it just Moids?

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 11 points 2 months ago

I think it unironically would be androids.

[–] JayDee@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

Folks 👨‍🌾

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Dicks and chicks. Like the band.