A poem about Lady Creatives

The hardest conviction to shake
That those who sin against her
Are instrumental, somehow, in unleashing
Caged and tortured Art
Trapped just beneath the surface

Perhaps that's how one ends up
Holding not one
But two men as they cry about their cheating
As if their comfort in their sins
Outweighs her pressing need
To be far, far away
And screaming

Stop Calling Women "Females," And Why.

I don't know if this is a relatively new phenomenon or if it has just recently started to bother me, but a lot of people are casually referring to women as "females" these days. The more I think about it, the more it needles me. I find it to be the kind of off-hand dehumanization in which our society trades far too easily.

We have plenty of perfectly good, uniquely human words to describe people with vaginas. Why, then, would individuals choose so often to use a term that also refers to dogs, frogs, and even trees, for goodness sake?

The only routine use of the words male/female in place of  man/woman that I can think of are in the scientific and medical fields. In these instances, isn't that terminology employed specifically to dehumanize the individual? To create a subject or a patient where before there was simply a person?

This may sound like overreaction or creating an issue out of nothing, but then I feel the need to ask, Why don't you come across instances of "males" being used in place of "men" in casual speech? I can't recall a single instance of having experienced this. The fact of the matter is that our society more flippantly dehumanizes women than men.* You rarely see fashion ads where male models are literally portraying items of furniture, for example. (This is a more common phenomenon for female models than it may sound. Look out for it.)

I also find that the use of the word "females" to refer to women is often accompanied by good old-fashioned, casual sexism and objectification. I once had a man tell me I was unusually "logical, for a female," for example. I often come across instances along the lines of, "I love a female with a big ass." This is casual sexism, and I believe it is being accompanied by pretty basic dehumanizing language.

So, men and women alike, because men are not the only culprits here by any means, please stop this. Give women and girls the respect they deserve by calling them women and girls. Your words do have power, no matter how much you may want to kick and scream and decry the PC Police, so act accordingly. Thanks.

*There are of course numerous instances of men being thoroughly dehumanized in/by American society due to racial and ethnic differences, and that is a part of the same conversation about power and discrimination, just not right this second.