“Female as a noun is mostly used in science and medicine, and women don’t want to feel like test subjects.”
I was told not to do this in science courses, mostly because it’s not correct rather than notions of creepiness. It applied to any adjective but male and female were called out specifically. This was decades before “woke” was a thing.
I think it’s not really used in the sciences, it’s used by people who want to sound scientific but aren’t.
That’s interesting. In my science classes, and several others past level 12, instructors did and returning for CE, still do use fe/male. I’m wondering if this is regional, because a. there are plenty of military bases in my state and surrounding, b. plenty of medical university hospitals, c. plenty of elderly. What I’m getting at is people get into a habit of speaking a certain way at work, and it does spill over into everyday speech, unconsciously, especially when others speak similarly, and if they don’t, seldom raise an eyebrow, let alone a fuss.
