• orclev@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yeah at a fundamental language level every word has implications. Any given word is less one specific meaning than it is one or more primary meanings with a whole constellation of associated concepts. Picking to use a specific word means one thing but its associated concepts also shade the surrounding words and sentence. The word “female” is not offensive any more than a word like “red” would be, but it carries a clinical connotation as well as being problematic with regards to trans people and the trans movement in general. Depending on how it’s used it could offend someone, but with the right tone or context so could asking someone “How old are you?”. So it’s wrong to say in absolute sense that “female” is offensive, but like many words it can be used in an offensive manner.