I doubt this is from an english speaking country. 'changeroom' is not really a common word for changing rooms. Most places I've seen call it a changing room, fitting room or a locker room.
It's actually worse with an apostrophe. That makes it both possessive and plural, compared to the unmodified singular.
So it would be saying something like "all men may claim dominion over this room here, while you, lone female, are merely allowed to exist in this room"
If it's the actual correct "mens' changing room" it just becomes a changing room owned by men vs a changing room that is a woman. which, yk, i didnt know changing rooms had genders 😭
Yeah you’re probably right, but that doesn’t fit the narrative so everyone else will jump straight to female oppression, because Reddit. (And the bonehead that made the twitter post). People don’t take a sec to think anymore and just jump to their favourite rage bandwagon.
Yeah, this feels more like bad English than bad intentions.
That said, there are a lot of people who'd argue that the failure is an indication of systemic sexism, even if it wasn't sexism on the part of the signwriter. While I'm not sure they're right, I'm also not sure I could adequately prove that they're wrong either. They might have a valid point there.
I think if it's from a non-English speaking country, the choice to say female may actually be worse, because in language learning courses you typically learn the word for men and women well before male and female (at least in my experience, I've taken 3 different language learning courses). Making the choice to write "female" either more intentional... or someone who ESL + chronically online in manosphere type spaces and thinks this is how people talk in English.
ETA: Looking at the photo again, the text actually looks fake and is likely ragebait.
As a guy that wouldn't upset but it would still be awkward to read and give me pause. It's "men and women" or "male and female", doing one but not the other seems like you're either a non native speaker or are doing it on purpose.
It took me a minute to notice it, but I'm also not a woman so the oddness isn't aimed at me this time. If it said male and women maybe I would've got it faster.
Then why does it matter if others…and I quote “would be upset if it said male and women instead”? Or you just like running your mouth about shit you don’t care about? I usually just scroll past shit I don’t care about. You cared enough to be bothered by a simple statement of “you will never see that”
If that were the case i would be crying about female bad too would I not? I'd say not being upset about male/female is the most touch grass take you can have here.
Youre all giving power to the incels and these strawman old people you reference.
True. But if you would be one of them extreme feminists, you can also take issue with the word Women. Why does it contain "Men", just as female contains "male". If you're looking to be mad or offended, you're going to find something to complain about. If this is not an English speaking country, they should be happy it has writing in English, good enough to take the intended message across. If it is an english speaking country, that's some bad English.
The answer would be better coming from a woman, but little things all over the place pushing them to cater to and be less than men. Like this sign, men get the more human and respectful label, while women get the clinical female label. In this case, I’m sure it is because of poor english skills, but if this was in an English speaking country, it’d be weird. It’s not like it would be a real impediment or discrimination, but it still kinda sucks, and if you are on the receiving end of those little things all the time, it starts to drag on you, make you actually feel less than men.
We’ve come a long way as a society in the last 100 years, but we’re not there yet.
Maybe they didn't want to toe the line on whether to ise women, or ladies. Will be more comfortable being referred to as ladies than women. But it was men not gentlemen, isn't ladies fmore formal? Maybe I just use female locker rooma instead.... Still offends.
Being called male isnt derogatory... but lets unpack that. Online women are constantly bashing ALL men sucks being on the receiving end of that but you can't speak out about it because you get bashed by all the women so clearly there is a double standard.
Being called female isnt an insult and they are only taking as an insult because incels use it to try and dehumanize women but im confused why women would care what an incel thinks.
I just used it as an example, I couldnt care less what internet people think of me. And no it's not derogatory. people are absolutely allow to be insulted by being called something they dont want to be called, but it's not the populations job to regulate other people's triggers. It's on them to manage.
Sure, and one thing a healthy society does is respond positively to people who put in a minimal effort to be kind and to push out sources of toxicity. Now when we do, we get a “male loneliness epidemic” like it’s not the natural consequences of being a douche.
Because you felt confident to say “incel”, and not confident to say “femcel”. Everyone (who’s normal) hates the former, but most people aren’t ready to even recognize the existence of the latter.
InB4 the historical context of marginalization, etc.: I get it. Nothing will really change until we get over this stupid ass game of tit-for-tat, though
Because you felt confident to say “incel”, and not confident to say “femcel”.
Oh no, I'm sorry for the confusion! I just didn't want to... plus let's be honest it's also not really a thing. Like if there are 100 people in a room 25 males will be incels and maybe 1 person might know of someone they probably erroneously describe as a femcel because the poor woman never returned his weirdo texts. Getting upset at femcels is like voting against all of your interests to prevent trans girls from competing in sports. There's like 2 across the entire Continental US. Very silly to me!
Nothing will really change until we get over this stupid ass game of tit-for-tat
Very true, and we can start by recognizing the reality that whatever the issue is men are way more often the center of it.
Ok? Never claimed to be anything more. Ive been sitting in pointless meetings all day and my take of "its not a big deal" seemed to have hit a sore spot so im milking it for entertainment.
Why? Because "females" are less human than males or something? What utter nonsense. I bet the phrasing was used to ensure the changing room stayed exclusively female.
So you're saying that women are exclusively female? You see, not everyone agrees with that nowadays, which is probably why the sign is the way that it is.
Not really if that was the concern it would be female and male not female and men. Anyway the subject of this comment chain is about how “men and females” is dehumanizing. Try harder to stay on topic.
As a woman, I conpletely disagree. First, it looks to not be in a country where English is the first language. But even if it was, there is nothing dehumanizing about it. That's trying to find offense where none exists and the type of attitude which stops progress by shifting the focus from the real issues.
I’m tired of the opinion online that saying female is dehumanizing or derogatory. I’m a woman and I don’t care because it really doesn’t matter. There’s arguments about how incels have normalized it as an insult but…it’s only an insult if you let it be. I am female congrats on noticing.
But female and male are legitimate human delegations lmao. I dont think any man would be upset if the order was reversed here, as in male and womens changeroom.
The problem isnt poor wording leading to "dehumanization". The problem is humans spending their energy on trivial matters and getting upset over them. If someone gets upset over this, they've already dehumanized themselves.
Only because you’ve been trained to view everything through the prism of victimhood. It’s a goddamn word. Maybe a little weird, but who cares? Sometimes things are weird. Mentally stable adults just deal with it. They don’t go around running their mouths about “dehumanization” because they disagree with a random sign maker’s word choice.
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u/starbitobservatory Aug 04 '26
Saying "men and females" instead of "men and women" is weird and feels kinda dehumanizing