What is a good word to use for people who are female of any age including young children that are not old enough to be called women in addition to women?
‘Women and girls’ is pretty clunky when talking about something that is gender specific, but applies to all ages.
I absolutely would use males in that context. “Toxic masculinity has a detrimental affect on males of all ages” sounds perfectly fine to me because I don’t know of a different label for the group and males doesn’t have the same dehumanizing usage as females.
Women is probably fine to use when the ages can be gleaned from context. You can also make the noun non gendered and use female as a adjective like “female students” or “female patients”
I’m mainly asking when ages span from birth to old age and the goup would basically be “female persons” or “male persons” which is clunky.
Sometimes it can be rephrased, but it often requires multiple words to mean the same thing. Plus “women of all ages” will be read as not including children.
I’m mostly pissed that sexists ruined the only single word term we have for half of the population.
“Female” is fine to use as an adjective.
It’s also fine to use as a noun when describing livestock, which is why it’s a red flag to describe women that way.
What is a good word to use for people who are female of any age including young children that are not old enough to be called women in addition to women?
‘Women and girls’ is pretty clunky when talking about something that is gender specific, but applies to all ages.
Just ask yourself if you’d use “males” in that context.
I absolutely would use males in that context. “Toxic masculinity has a detrimental affect on males of all ages” sounds perfectly fine to me because I don’t know of a different label for the group and males doesn’t have the same dehumanizing usage as females.
boys and men / girls and women sounds right to me
‘Gendered violence against teenage women and girls’ is really clunky. Especially if it needs repeating across paragraphs.
If there isn’t something, that’s fine.
“Gendered violence against females” on the other hand sounds a bit too clinical though… Like you’re removing their personhood
If ‘females’ wasn’t used by online sexists to treat women as objects would it sound that way?
Maybe! I don’t know if “gendered violence against men” also has the same connotations.
Maybe this is indeed is a case of those people poisoning the term.
“Don’t forget about gendered violence against boys!” would be a likely response to a statement about men.
It is absolutely a case of a term being poisoned, which does mean it needs to be treated more carefully but sucks when there isn’t an alternative.
Women is probably fine to use when the ages can be gleaned from context. You can also make the noun non gendered and use female as a adjective like “female students” or “female patients”
I’m mainly asking when ages span from birth to old age and the goup would basically be “female persons” or “male persons” which is clunky.
Sometimes it can be rephrased, but it often requires multiple words to mean the same thing. Plus “women of all ages” will be read as not including children.
I’m mostly pissed that sexists ruined the only single word term we have for half of the population.
Honestly I don’t think ‘women and girls’ feels clunky, but that’s just me