This explains it pretty well https://callmebymygender.top/

Anything can be offensive in the corresponding context.

I mean, I didn’t know “orange” could be offensive, but then Trump showed up.

Yas, Queen

You can use it to compare humans with animals. It is often used in animal documentaries. You can use female/male as a name in general. Then you have it very clear in a little bit insulting style. On the other hand it’s not really insulting and nobody can expect from a second or third language guy to speak in a non-offensive style like US- or UK establishment people like to do. This would be racism. 🤡

Saying ‘female’ to refer to a person who is female can sound overly technical or abstracted, and therefore a bit dehumanizing or depersonalizing.

That said, some people over-react, and sometimes it is more appropriate or at least fine to say ‘female’, for example if you were speaking in the abstract about something that spans between women and girls, or is specifically about biological sex.

But most of the time ‘women’ or ‘girls’ or even ‘ladies’ is going to be more appropriate.

What language are you coming from, out of curiosity?

Ignore the idiots. We non native speakers are graceful enough to attempt to talk with them politely, that is more than enough. Appeasing snowflakes is not my goal.

im a female. im offensive. does that count?

How about: “The weaker sex” instead?

Mostly just by association. It sounds very incel-y.

it’s supposed to be an adjective (female dog, female human, etc.) but people who want to reduce people to nothing but their sex will use it as a noun.

I’ve switched to Lady for a lot of descriptors that I used to use Female. And a lot more They. Or just a physical description, like the person with the dark hair.

Edit: I’m probably trying harder than I need to. I just want to accommodate people.

The problem is using it when “woman” is the correct word. If you say stuff like “the female at the customer service desk doesn’t know how to do her job” then you run the risk of being called an incel or ferengi, though if you don’t seem like a sexist, churchy, or maga-hatter, then you can probably get away with it by not sounding like a native speaker. Or just avoid all that like me and don’t talk to people because social interactions of any kind are mentally draining.

I’d say it’s a tone and context sorta thing.

Some people think it’s dehumanizing. As an adjective, it’s more acceptable (“There is a female nurse”); it sounds a bit off-putting as a noun (“The nurse is a female”). There are some people who don’t like to use it at all, and that leads to awkward things like using “woman” as an adjective (“There is a woman nurse”)!

You’re probably okay as long as you stick to using it as an adjective, but you still might offend some people.

This is what I said to someone who asked a very similar question about the same thing a while back:

‘Females’ is, effectively, a ‘technical term’ you might say, that isn’t used in normal conversation. It’s used specifically in situations where distance from the subject being discussed is intentional. It is the sort of language used in police reports, medical reports and the like…when it’s even being applied to humans at all. Its use is perhaps more common referring to animals; it’s the sort of terminology you’d expect to hear in a nature documentary.

The people trying to push its use are intending to make the subjects - women - sound ‘other’ and separate and alien by referring to them as ‘females’. Not everyone who is picking up this terminology intends it that way, but the connotations are unavoidable because of how language works in common use, and therefore if you don’t intend it that way, you badly need to be made aware of it so you can stop.