The Trouble With “Females”

I have a problem with the word female. Or, more specifically, I have a problem with the way people use the word female.

Take this quote, from Falserape.net (this site is a whole series of posts in itself, but it’s one of the first places I noticed the use of female in a problematic way):

Some of the men accused of rape were innocent in the 2004 Air Force Academy onslaught of charges.

There were 56 cases of alleged sexual assault that allegedly happened between 1993 and 2000 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Many of the females involved in the 56 cases of sexual assault were engaged in conduct such as drinking alcohol that could get them kicked out of the Air Force Academy. (Emphasis mine).

Note that, in this excerpt, men (for which the antonym is women) were accused of rape by females (for which the antonym ismales).

This is far from the only example. Sometimes the terms men and females are used in the same sentence:

“Flirtatious females confuse men: Study”

“Chinese Parents Abort Females; Men Can’t Find Mates”

“Read Up, Females. Men Are Writing”

Those examples are all pulled from the first page of a Google search for “females men.” The search for “males women” doesn’t yield any similar pairings. When the term males is used, the correct antonym females is also used:

“Alpha Females and Beta Males – Women in Power”

“Are Alpha Males in Danger of Extinction? | Women’s Health Magazine”

Now, sometimes it’s just grammatically impossible to use women instead of female (or men instead of male):

“As the male drive dwindles, women are increasingly aggressive.”

You wouldn’t say “as the men drive dwindles,” because male is used as an adjective, and there isn’t an equivalent adjective, except perhaps manly, but that has different connotations.

However, in all of the females/men examples, females could be replaced by women, or girls (for the one about aborting female fetuses in China– aborting women is a different matter).

So why does that happen? And why does it matter?

Here’s my problem: the term female refers to biological sex, and can be applied to many different species: e.g. the female gorilla, the female trout. The term woman refers to gender, which is applied exclusively to humans. For example, it is ungrammatical to say the woman gorilla, or the trout woman.

Because of this, I think the use of females in cases where women would be the logical choice is dehumanizing. I don’t think people do it consciously, but it seems to come up when the speaker or writer feels negatively about the women he or she is referring to (as in the example from Falserape.net).

So now that I’ve pointed it out, listen for it. See for yourself who is using the term female and when. Consider why. I’d love to hear other explanations and thoughts on why this happens.

[Reblogged from my personal blog.]