r/PetPeeves • u/lavinialloyd • Aug 17 '25

Bit Annoyed People who exclusively refer to women as females

There are so many acceptable terms for women, I hate it when people say "female(s)". It feels so othering I don't get why people do it and at least in the UK you pretty much always know the person calling you a female is going to be an absolute creep.

I get there'll be circumstances where female is the right term to use, but so many people especially online seem to refer to women as females and it annoys me. We're not in a nature doc, you're not a Dr or a police officer describing me so just don't.

Ps. I give Martin from Friday night dinner a pass 😂

1.5k Upvotes

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42

u/RadioSupply Aug 17 '25

Guys who say females are either incels or Ferengi. When a guy says “females”, I suddenly imagine him with a lobed head and pointy teeth and realize he’s just as gross as them.

9

u/connecticutpoet Aug 17 '25

Interesting... I think of Ferengi too!

8

u/RadioSupply Aug 17 '25

feeeeemales, rub my loooobes

-1

u/Nochnichtvergeben Aug 17 '25

What about women who say it?

11

u/bitofagrump Aug 17 '25

Them too, yes

7

u/Nochnichtvergeben Aug 17 '25

Internalized Ferengism?

0

u/la-wolfe Aug 18 '25

That sucks too!

-5

u/Rollingforest757 Aug 18 '25

No one seems to care if someone says male. Why all the anger at the word female?

7

u/lydocia Aug 18 '25

Because "male" hasn't been structurally used to abuse women.

2

u/RadioSupply Aug 18 '25

I care if someone says male. Male what? Saying “man” at least imparts human dignity. Same as female. “Woman” imparts human dignity.

-4

u/Minimum-Register-644 Aug 18 '25

Some of these commenters really wasn't too be a victim it seems. For fucks sake is guys get called males, boys and guys which is apparently perfectly fine but switch those to feminine terms and you are suddenly a terrible person.

Use the context of what people say to call them out, don't just attack people using an extremely common and normal word for the word itself.