Empowerment Through Understanding: The Layers of ‘Female’
“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.” — Marie Curie
Am I a female? Female, female, female. Question: what the fuck is a female? Why is it suddenly offensive? Question mark, question mark?
To be honest, I think the epitome of being a female was when Valerie Solanas was accused of unzipping her pants and having a bit of fun in the middle of the SCUM recruitment meetings in 1967 — the woman who shot Andy Warhol and openly declared genocide against all men numerous times, touching herself at the Chelsea Hotel in front of a crowd of people. Talk about female Jesus, huh?
Anyway, Happy National Women’s History Month! It’s kind of sad that we only have just a month of the whole year to properly acknowledge the extraordinary things that women have done over the centuries, but oh well, I suppose it is what it is. It takes a collective effort to educate and dismantle that systematic oppression, and in honor of the one month we women have for ourselves, it’s about time to settle an ongoing debate I’ve seen a lot online.
The word ‘female’ is derived from the Latin word ‘femella’, meaning young woman or girl. For centuries, ‘female’ has served as an adjective and a noun in the English dictionary, and has also been a commonplace synonym for other words like ‘woman’, ‘girl’, ‘lady’, and even ‘lass’.
To understand the offense, let’s look at biology first. When an organism produces an ovum, or egg cell, it is considered to have female sex. During sexual reproduction, this gamete, or sex cell, combines with a male gamete, or sperm cell. If we look at it that way, being a female relies entirely on one’s reproductive system. At first glance, this makes perfect sense, but when you look at it deeper, you realize that Being A Female excludes young girls, women with reproductory problems, trans women, and to some extent, queer women. Not everyone who was born female is a woman, and not every woman was born female.
Simply, being a female is all about sex. Being a woman is all about gender — your intentional understanding of how you identify. So imagine, when after centuries of proving you’re not just that one thing, men still dumb you down to be a female.
Because see- nobody ever says ‘male’ when they mean ‘man.’ And you shouldn’t say ‘female’ either when what you actually mean is ‘woman.’
In her book ‘Females,’ Andrea Long Chu explores the etymology of the word “female” and its connections to various other English terms. Through its Indo-European reconstruction, the word ‘female’ is distant cousins with over two dozen English words, including fellatio, which comes from Latin fellare, meaning “to suck a dick.” (p. 44). That’s… definitely something to think about.
Historically speaking, females have always been less than a person. Chu further writes about enslaved black women in the antebellum South, and how they were denied legal personhood so that his findings could apply to his white women patients (p. 45). In this sense, the difference between a Female and a Woman is far from biological, but more or less is considered a social category. (I highly suggest reading the full book, by the way. It’s a great read for anybody).
So the problem here doesn’t necessarily lie in the technicalities. The problem here lies in the moral principles of those who use it. It’s not about grammar, but rather about context, tone, and intent. It’s also worthwhile to point out that in this case, ‘female’ is often used secretively, seldom upfront. Have you ever, as a woman, been called a female to your face? Hasn’t it always been in referral to someone else?
“Why do females always have to/Females are always/She’s a female, of course, she’ll/Females will never- blah blah blah-”
Like literally shut up.
It costs nothing to change the way you talk about women. If you know and you don’t care, then that’s really on you. It shows your ignorance and unwillingness to change for the better. It’s understandable that when we’re presented with new ideas that challenge our existing belief system, we get upset and try to cling to what we already know, but let’s be real now — if we try to hang on to every figment of the past we would get virtually nowhere.
Don’t try to rationalize your feelings when they don’t belong in the conversation. Try to understand. And uh, I’m a woman, thanks.
