I saw this image:
This character is at least 20 years old and they refer to themselves as otome. Is this correct or can one be called that?
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2I'm just curious, but is using 'singular they' so common that it's used in a case like this (the character is by all standards she)? – sundowner Feb 22 '24 at 23:08
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It is mostly like 女子 What is the difference between 女子 and 女の人? / 女子 vs 女の子 nuances – sundowner Feb 22 '24 at 23:09
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1@sundowner it's pretty normal. I wouldn't have thought about it if you hadn't mentioned it. – Leebo Feb 22 '24 at 23:17
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1@Leebo - The apparent mismatch in number between "this character" and "20 year olds" caught my eye more than the use of "they." Is it also normal? I didn't take that "they" as gender neutral because of the plural "olds." – aguijonazo Feb 22 '24 at 23:35
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1@sundowner there is a wide range of usage nowadays. Traditionally, "they" only referred to an unknown hypothetical person; now it's commonly used to refer to a known person of unknown gender, or a person who claims a gender outside the traditional binary. Some people went further and started requesting others to refer to them with "they" despite a strong binary gender identification, in solidarity and/or to normalize de-emphasizing the gender of individuals. It's at the point where some younger speakers habitually don't use "he" or "she" etc. at all. – Karl Knechtel Feb 22 '24 at 23:38
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Anyway, the use of terms like this is culturally and sub-culturally mediated, in every language. I've heard men in their 80s use "girl" to refer to women nearly as old as themselves; and "old boys' club" (or "old boys' network") is a set phrase to describe (or allege) any system of patriarchal nepotism or cronyism. – Karl Knechtel Feb 22 '24 at 23:40
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@aguijonazo "20 year olds" was just a typo for "20 years old", presumably... even that kind of thing is kind of invisible to me when I'm just quickly reading online. I consume so much "internet typing" that it all just blends into "I know what they meant." – Leebo Feb 22 '24 at 23:47
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too short for an answer, but 乙女 also has the nuance of 'pure of heart,' 'virgin,' or 'naive in the ways of the world' – BrandAmber Mar 01 '24 at 08:56
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Like 女の子, it's pretty acceptable for women to call themselves this up to 30ish (though I would assume jokingly, as 乙女 sounds poetic). Here it sounds like she is stressing that she is a young, innocent girl by using 乙女 (like "How dare you burn an innocent girl's chest!").
Jimmy
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@jimmy regarding this character does this say anything about this characters age as I assume they are 20? does it mean its wrong? is the context here meant to be a joke? – Zain Alleck Feb 23 '24 at 02:09
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@ZainAlleck In this particular scene, I don't think there's any real joke here. Just chastising the other person (a man I assume) for burning a girl (her), which is not very gentleman-like. Localized, I might just translate the scene as "I got burned bad because of you!" "You burned the chest of a maiden! What the hell!" – Jimmy Feb 23 '24 at 07:58
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@Jimmy I was wondering does this say anything about her age? I assume she's 20 but does the use of otome mean she is younger? – Zain Alleck Feb 23 '24 at 21:08
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@ZainAlleck I guess you've seen otome means late teenagers, but as a practical connotation, there's no strict border on age. The character seems young enough for a 'proper' use of otome whether or not she's over 20. – sundowner Feb 23 '24 at 22:44
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@ZainAlleck No. You can infer nothing about her age by her using otome. Otome connotes purity - so in that context it means something like and a burn on pure/chaste breast, this is impossible. – sundowner Mar 02 '24 at 12:34