I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word “female”, is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?

I don’t know if this is the best place to ask, if it’s not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^

  • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    3 years ago, “man” in that context was considered gender neutral. More recently tho a lot of stink is being made about little language things like this. Theres no replacement word to use.

    • Jojo@lemm.ee
      0·
      9 months ago

      Frenchwoman and Frenchperson are both ridiculous enough to try, but maybe go with Frenchie just to see if they’ll punch you.

    • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      It’s been a lot longer than 3 years. My city changed policeman and fireman to police officer and firefighter almost two decades ago.

      I am very skeptical of this 3 year timeframe lining up with the end of Trump’s presidency and the right leaning into this anti-woke position.

      • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Sensitivities during Covid ran high. A lot of things changed then. For instance in the software world removing the name “master” from git usage, and on the TV Show Survivor, the host not saying his famous line “come on in guys”. At the same time pronouns became a huge thing, and these seemingly gender specific or sensitive word terms were targeted.

        You are correct, there was a round of this in the 90s or so, where job titles like “waitress”, “stewardess”, “policeman” were all adjusted. I see that as a very different round of language change.

        • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          GitHub changed their terminology in ~2020, but it’s been a controversial term for years before that. I remember master/slave hard drive terminology being set aside in early 2010s. And I was just grunt level, hourly IT at the time.

          • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            Yeah, 2020 is the time period I’m referring to. I had never heard of it being a thing until George Floyd and BLM movement in 2020, then GitHub changed in response to that.

            I’ve been in IT for 35 years. And I never heard a single negative thing about branch names and master/slave terminology until 2020.

            Perhaps you think that was set aside because IDE hard drives are dead.

            • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
              0·
              9 months ago

              It goes even further back than I was aware, to 2003.

              http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3243656.stm

              My sticking point in your original statement is that all this “sensitivity” is new, allegedly aligning with covid and George Floyd and BLM. That’s not the case and it minimizes the decades of work people have spent trying to influence language to be more inclusive.

              3 years ago may be when pearl-clutchers started reaching a critical volume to where media saw the dollar signs in catering to them.