Female or Woman?

 Over on Hoyden About Town there was a fascinating discussion recently about the use of the term female when referring to women. In her post Tigtog has used photo montages to show exactly what each term actually means and why it is both incorrect and inappropriate to use female instead of woman. The comment stream is also worth reading as it extends the discussion to the inappropriate use of the term girl - the Olympics and Paralympics were rife with it - and how it infantilises and dehumanises adult women. I don't know about the rest of you but I really dislike being called "a female", almost as much as I hate being greeted by a doctor (and there have been far too many over the years and all male) who says, "And how's Mum?" as a way to start a consultation.