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 ^^
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.