Comments on: “Female” or “Woman”?

By: Daeng Bo

Daeng Bo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:08:25 +0000

Using “women” in a noun-noun pairing like “women senators” would be just as wrong as saying “the shoes store.” Ugh.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:38:17 +0000

I completely agree with Cindy. It is never correct to say “men senators.” How could it be proper to say “women senators” other than to distinguish them from the male Senators? If we look at this phrase more carefully we would see that women is the noun and senators is the adjective. This implies that they are inherently women first and senators second. Even though male Senators are still just men in their personal lives. The honor of the office would demand the formality to view these men as representatives of their state first; especially when taking the floor. It could be argued in some alternate reality that this was a female issue so they took to the floor not as female Senators but as women. All kidding aside this was not the reality for these women senators.

The writer also makes a point that when inversing male/woman and man/female in the same thought that reduces the other gender importance to their reproductive roles. Which is obviously the purpose and why its so commonly understood without a jolt to the brains logic centers.

By: Abhay Hulikavi

Abhay Hulikavi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:02:30 +0000

My two cents…in this specific case I wonder whether the emphasis was on ‘Senator’ or ‘Women’. If the emphasis was on the word ‘women’ (implying that it was only the women amongst the Senators who took the floor), then would it be right to say that “all women amongst the senators took to the floor”?

On another note, what if we had to make the same comment for the ‘men’ amongst the senators? How would that be phrased?

By: Brad K.

Brad K. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:27:33 +0000

@Dee, I shudder at the thought, but I imagine the choice of “female” was deliberate – so he wouldn’t lose the girls and children he is hoping for. A 16 year old girl might not write back to someone looking for a “lady” or “woman”.

Gag me with a spoon.

By: sherry roth

sherry roth — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:01:34 +0000

Dee, Perhaps a Toronto alley cat is what the “gentleman of distinction” is actually looking for…I would think that anybody who would call himself that but then state he was looking for a “female,” would probably know the difference…if he wanted a “lady of distinction” I’m sure he’d have written that! Go on and answer him with a resounding MEOW LOL