It's "woman," fascists

What's with this new corporate media preference for the word "female" to replace woman/women? (AP/Reuters/UPI/CanWest ad nauseum headlines reading, for example, "Iran hangs female" or "Female soldier killed in Afghanistan.")

I wonder if it comes from cop jargon: a [race] female or [race] male was shot.... Nothing like objectifying us even further/equating us with members of some subordinate species. Oh, yeah, that's right, to the rulers and their apologists we are.