Whatever happened to “Female”?
The goalpost has been moved — again
I was stunned.
On Reddit, a reader asked a question and talked about how a Female in his workplace was being rude. The questioner had come seeking help but there he was, getting flamed.
How dare you call her a female? Is she an extension of you?! So rude.
And more and more people piled on.
I took it all in with the same astonishment I had when earlier in the year, I saw someone else getting flamed for daring to call his father, Daddy.
Daddy?
The same word I use for my father. The word the white colonizers gave us in place of Nnam — the word for father, in my native tongue. Because we spoke more English than my native tongue in our home (story for another day), naturally, we used Daddy.
Daddy?!
They screamed through their texts.
What a creep. Which adult still calls his father Daddy? I need to take a cold shower to wash this Daddy stink off!
They said.
The goalpost was moved, this time with female and, Africa is yet to get the memo. I would loathe to be that man. Who knows, if we have a similar background.
I imagine myself, a woman, (‘unknowingly’) calling myself a female?! The very word we learned was synonymous with woman, lady, and girl.
I can almost hear the anger of these folks who mostly appeared to be from the West:
Internalized misogyny! How dare you insult my womanhood by calling me a female?
Mercifully, I wasn’t the one who had dared to use that misogynistic, sexist word — female.
I don’t care what that woman did. Using that word shows your misogyny! You think she is less than. She must be onto your attitude and that is why she is so rude.
They continued roasting the man online.
All the while though and even after reading many comments as to why female elicited such vibrant discourse and disemboweling words for the offender, I still have not wrapped my head around the question:
When did female become a word that disempowers women?
And,
Why has no one told Africa?
