Meh, it’s a thing in the military because female military members are segregated and have different uniforms.
A woman in the military isn’t described as that, they’re a “femal soldier/sailor/marine” and all their uniforms, regs, standards, and housing comes with that prefix.
Even tho “female” descriptor comes first it’s to ingrain that above all else they’re a service member.
It’s about what the noun is.
It took a couple years till I stopped slipping, and I understand why a service member would use it. That shit gets so beat intto you that you really don’t even notice it. So when you get let out into the civilian world, it’s hard to break the habit. Those people would appreciate being called out that what they’re doing is weird for civvies tho.
But yeah…
99% of the people using it are just fucking weird.
“Female <job title>” isnt at all as bad as just… “female”, the prior is a clarifying adjective, the latter is using it as a descriptive noun.
Like if I say “Female Officers suffer from above average sexual harassment” that statement isnt a big deal.
If I say “You are a beautiful female” to a woman though, it sounds disgusting.
I mean literally just compare these two basic statements.
“Go hand this package to that Female Officer over there” (This just distinguishes the Female Officer from the Male Officers probably standing near her)
vs
“Go hand this package to that Female over there” (this sounds like you are an alien visiting earth and talking to me)
Ever hear:
Hand me that Philips head
And get pissed off?
Because someone used the adjective when the noun was implied?
Like, I mentioned a specific context where it was used normally and now you’re wanting me to defend every imagined use you can think of.
It’s tiresome
Fundamentally adjectives vs noun do indeed carry substantially different weight.
Which of these statements would you say will piss someone off more:
“You’re a bitch” “You’re being bitchy”
Anyone with common sense knows the former sentence carries way more weight in terms of a statement.
“Female Officer” is just not rude, because its merely a clarifier, to avoid confusion.
“Female” can be used that way to, but usually its not necessary when referring to people, it only makese sense when used to clarify animals as a whole.
“Female mammals have ovaries” for example makes sense, because it clarifies which mammals we are talking about.
But if you say “Female Humans” now you sound like an alien describing people, because you and I are humans, so we don’t need to specify, it sounds “outer”, like something someone other than a human would write.
The only time itd make sense to use that is when literally distinguishing Female Humans from Females of another type.
IE “Unlike Female Bugs, Female Humans don’t lay eggs”
Then it goes back to making sense.