What? I use "females". I thought it was a clever way to get around having to choose between "girl" and "woman", as I would assume different females prefer different terms based on their self-image. I'm not quite comfortable with being called a man (it makes me think of my father), but "boy" is certainly incorrect. Male is a perfectly fine thing to say.
Basically the girl/woman boundary involves sex, mental maturity, age and other things I don't really want to touch.
Calling human beings "male" and "female" comes across as incredibly creepy to me. In certain technical contexts, the creepiness is normalised, but in everyday conversation, it makes me wonder if you're a psychopath.
"Ladies" and "guys" always seems to go down pretty well for me.
But it sounds like you're labeling a member of some other species or something.
In professional and unknown context, you can't really go wrong with woman for anyone above drinking age. (It's the most polite and neutral possible, I'd say.)
I really wish you were right, but the thing about ladies/women/girls/females/dames/womyn/gals/femmes is, being individuals, they have individual opinions on the matter. And being human, they just may have specific fears and wishes regarding their perception. So some girls hear “woman” as “old!” and some women hear “girl” as “object!” and so on and so forth.
Just as in anything else messy and human, there isn’t an easy answer.
But, oops now you are transphobic! Because "female" excludes those who identify as women but are not biologically female. I've seen enough people catch flak for it on Twitter.
I wonder if Anil retweets trans women? Can I qualify for his retweets if I become woman? But then I spent most of my life being overrepresented so maybe not?
And wait: trans women as a group are also likely already overrepresented in tech compared to the rest of the population; so maybe one should NOT retweet trans women?
It is literally impossible to address gender in a way that doesn't offend somebody.
