I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as female outside of someone being creepy… I also haven’t heard men referred to as „males“ outside of bad romance novels either. You may now downvote :P
Okay, but depending on how “female” is said, it is often used in a derogatory way by incels and misogynists.
This one has always been weird for me because I was in the military before female became an incel term and we regularly referred to women as females. Female officer, female berthing, female uniform standards…
female as an adjective is fine. As a noun? Yeah I’m gonna stop you right there, buddy.
What’s wrong with using the term female? I really don’t know but I’ve heard that you shouldn’t do it
“female protagonist” good
“I talked to a female today” bad
Short version but depends if you’re talking about a specific person(s) or describing the person.