ABOUT 'FEMALES'

written in 2/09 ... not a poem at all, just musings of a sort ...

Now, someone really needs to enlighten me on this. I was flirting, I guess, with a woman who thought it best that I realize that she was not like the other females I had been known to associate with. Hmmm... The word ‘females' seemed the only thing she said worth noting or remembering. Certainly, her point ('I bet you tell all the girls that.') was a tired one. But, 'females' -- you mean like my sister's dog, Lady? So you mean a b***h? Or do you mean 'doe, a deer, a female deer?' Or maybe you mean a cow, or a sow, a ewe, maybe a spinster, even a shrew?

Why do you (I don't, and never have) use that word 'females' to refer to women?

When you do that does it de-personalize the communication, like a police report that describes a 'female, African-American, 5' 4", 140lbs'?

Does it de-humanize, as it makes no qualitative distinction between a woman, a sow, a w***e, a lioness, a b***h, a gay man?

And is being 'female' a state of physical being, or one of the mind? Is a gay man a 'female' or a ‘male?’ How about a lesbian?

With so much opportunity to be specific, or , if not, then to be misunderstood, why do we purposely choose this vague, broad term when we know we are speaking specifically of female human beings, commonly known as 'women?'

Why do we, especially we people of color who have always struggled for the assertion of our true selves, use this term that is such a denial of a woman's true, individual self?

 

Reviews

[LJW]

Can relate. Like no one describes their car as a "vehicle" unless they're in court.

[just rose.]

I think I agree with the implication above that maybe it makes it safer and creates a space; it depersonalizes. Just my 2 cents. The question of your piece is though, WHY? That I don't know. But I did say to someone the other day: "When you say 'this girl' I think: you're into her. And when you say 'this lady' I think: she's just like everyone else." Ultimately word choices and context are fascinating.