I don’t remember the latter doing so at all. Are you sure?
Anyhow, I just looked through the script for “Emissary” (DS9) and found at least two uses of “man” or “woman” in dialogue to refer to non-humans (Odo says “the man is a liar and a thief,” referring to Quark; and Quark says, “I love a woman in uniform,” referring to Kira).
At least, in referring to males and females, you were being consistent.
Most men i’ve come across who use the term “females” still use the term “men” or “guys” when referring to the male of the species. Their use of “female” always seems vaguely dismissive, or even, in some cases, misogynistic. It may not be intended that way, but it seems that way to me, and the use of “female” generally seems to reflect a view of woman that is, if not neanderthal, at least 1950s in its orientation.
For me, it’s one of those little things that i find annoying, and that reduces (if only by a little bit) the amount of respect i have for the person who uses it.
Male; 37; white.
I find it offensive. Not sexist so much, just offensive towards humans.
Back in the 80s, I noticed a lot of public toilets started having MALE and FEMALE on their doors instead of MEN and WOMEN (or even better, GENTLEMEN and LADIES - which I like because I’m a traditionalist).
MALE and FEMALE just completely dehumanises us and makes us mere bags of skin, blood and bone. It’s fine for animals. Not for people.
It sounds insulting to me, but I guess it would depend on the context. “Female” is not necessarily offensive, but “females” is dehumanizing. Mostly because it reminds me of the third guy in this video (not entirely work-safe)
The one I especially hate is MEN and LADIES. No, the feminine of MEN is not LADIES; the feminine of MEN is WOMEN, and the masculine of LADIES is GENTLEMEN. Please choose two of one or two of the other.
I promise if you hear “Ma’am” from me that I will be polite and friendly.
It doesn’t sound insulting to me. It sounds odd and somehow ignorant and/or uneducated.
I’m not sure what I would think about “female” being used to refer to women; like a lot of the people who posted to this thread, I guess it would depend on the context. However, you’ve made me think of something else. I’ve read a few novels where the action is located in early 20[sup]th[/sup] century rural Quebec, and very often the male characters in these books refer to women as “créatures”. To me this sounds awfully demeaning, but it doesn’t seem to bother the female characters (and some of them use the word too), so I guess that must have been how women were referred to at the time. On the other hand, it might be one of the reasons why your former username sounds awfully feminine to me. 
I can’t recall ever having seen that one, but I’d hate it too.
That’s because you, sir, are a gentleman. 
:: grumbling ::
Fine. Make me be a geek.
It was a second season episode with Troi’s mother as the guest star; she’d come to the Enterprise because she was going through the Betazoid change of life, which had the interesting effect of making Betazoid women four times as horny as usual. (Makes one wonder what Riker is in for a few years down the line. 
) Anywhistle, Worf and Wesley in the transporter room, apparently figuring that’s the best place to hide from Picard if they’re gonna be goofing off, when Troi comes in. During the silly conversation that follows, someone calls Worf a man, and, annoyed, he says that he is not one. Clearly he’s equating man to Homo sapiens male.
I agree that the Trek writers were inconsistent on this point (though I’d argue that of the quasi-alien races featured on the series, the Bajorans were the closest to human; apart from the nose ridges and the very gentle labor, we saw no real physiological differences between them and Terrans.
Feminine or gay? :dubious:
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Late to the thread, but I wanted to point out why I hate being called ma’am. I wasn’t called ma’am until I turned 30. Before that it was Miss.
I can’t be getting old.
You’re not old, my love. You’re classical. In fact I have it on good authority that, due to a strange time-travel accident, you were in fact the inspiration for Prosperine.
Either, possibly. To me a “Fabulous Creature” would either be a woman or a joke name for a gay man.
I had no idea that dirt was only 43 years old, but I was taught to say “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Sir”, too. It was a requirement that ‘Southern Gentlemen’ were expected to adhere to, and it was so strictly instilled in many of us that, to this day, we would no more dream of not saying it than we would of going out in public without our trousers on.
In the interest of full disclosure, though, my conscience compels me to apologize to the ladies present for laughing my ass of at AskNott’s ‘you with the tits’ joke. Begging your pardon, ma’am, but that was funny as hell.
I heard Judge Lynn Toler admonishing someone for this…and both the man and the woman in the case were referring to him talking to a female…and seeing phone numbers for female, and a female coming to talk to him…Judge Toler put it best…she said…WHAT IS WITH THIS FEMALE BUSINESS???What are we cattle? She’s right. It is demeaning. Seems the men are referred to as men…they are not saying male…they are only saying female. Sure, there are worse things to call women but that doesn’t make it any less dehumanizing. It reminds me of how cops provide descriptions…Male, 30, Female 5’10, etc. It seems to enter too many people’s vocabularies.
I find it offensive, mainly because I’ve heard it mostly in nerd/geek culture (my people!) coming from guys who…shall we say…are not high on the social skills scale. I get a lot of it when gaming, “I ask the female about X,” or “I try to seduce the female–what do I roll?”
I don’t mind it at all as long as it’s applied equally (that is, if someone calls men “males” and women “females,” it doesn’t bother me). But if men are men and women are females…yeah. It’s annoying and sexist and condescending.
I suppose “female” is better than “zombie”…
I dislike it too. Seems every month around here there’s some thread by some guy asking “How to meet females” or “How do I get this female to like me?” or “Tricks for picking up females” and I find it skeevy and weird. We are not a different species.
I also intensely dislike being called ma’am - if you don’t know my name, I’d rather you used Ms. (“mizz”) or found some other way to get my attention (“excuse me” works). Like [del]featherlou[/del]Cat Whisperer, I usually only encounter ma’am from telemarketers or city service drones who are rude and condescending.
I don’t mind being included when someone refers to a group as “guys”, and I’m not a big fan of “chicks”, though it does have it’s place (mostly during laughing, drunken conversations).
Female/lady/woman/whatever here - I don’t find it offensive.