I cringe every time I hear another guy refer to women like this

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    males and females is still psychotic if you’re not specifically talking science like biology, statistics, etc. adjectives as nouns are rarely a good sign in general; it’s almost always derogative.

    also boys and girls would be fine except most people who use (or claim to use) boys do it in familiar sense only. they’d never call a 40 year old jacked man they don’t know a boy, but they’d easily call a grown ass woman they don’t know a girl. exceptions are some phrases like “big boy” or “my boy” in endearing sense but that’s not how “girl” is generally used, which is a substitute for “woman”.

    • Bob@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      adjectives as nouns are rarely a good sign in general

      I don’t think that’s true unless you mean within the context of referring to people or something, e.g. the blacks, the poors. But then stuff like “the rich” and “the unemployed” I don’t really take issue with.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        yeah, you’re right but they’re two different cases. notice how when it’s right you don’t pluralize it with an -s because some adjectives have a form of a plural noun, so they don’t have a singular form: “a poor” or “a black” is just yikes. you can find words like “rich” as plural nouns apart from the adjective forms in the dictionary. you might find “female” and “black” as a noun for people too, but they should be marked offensive either directly or in usage notes.

        so that’s the distinction. “black” or “female” don’t exist as plural nouns like “the rich” or “the blessed”.

        interestingly enough there are exceptions. there is no plural noun “the gay” but “gays” usually isn’t offensive as a noun, but also “a gay” is weird and offensive. language is complicated.

        • Bob@feddit.nl
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          2 months ago

          I believe “the gays” used to be offensive, and I did notice that myself but it doesn’t make sense to met that that would be the distinction!

    • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      A lot of prior military folks will use males and females just because that’s how it’s been drilled into them. Male and female latrines, not men and women’s bathrooms. Male and female barracks, not men and women’s dorms. Male and female standards, etc etc.

        • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          Is it not dehumanizing to call veterans psychotic? Seems a bit like kicking someone while they’re down. The military broke them enough, the last things veterans need is to be mocked, dehumanized and treated like creeps.

          • pyre@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            first of all, i didn’t call them psychotic. read it again.

            second of all, you literally say they’re broken. i don’t know what to tell you.

            and finally, fuck veterans, like I give a shit how they want to be treated. maybe they shouldn’t thought of that before they volunteered to kill or help kill as many brown kids as they can. unless they were drafted or something then they get a pass. sort of.