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Why is it that in Japanese sentence one sees 男 or 女 with furigana that says
ひと? Furigana is supposed to help clarify the meaning of a kanji character, but
using ひと doesn't seem to help clarify anything. So what's the point of doing
that?
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2011-06-23T15:43:00.090
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2021-07-21T00:36:30.163
2021-07-21T00:36:30.163
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meaning furigana ateji register creative-furigana
Reading 男 or 女 as ひと
I have never seen 人 with おとこ or おんな for the furigana, but I've seen plenty of
examples when the person would be saying the furigana, but the meaning was
further clarified by the kanji used.

For example, in Deadman Wonderland, it quite often has the letters DW with the
furigana ここ because the person said 'here' but was referring to the entire
park.
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2011-06-23T15:46:07.500
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2011-06-23T15:46:07.500
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answer
I think one of the reason would be politeness, for example あの人知っている？ is more
polite than あの女 or あの男 in the sense. And the latter has some sarcasm or
contempt.

Using 人 with おとこ or おんな can be seen in manga or may be used in lyrics. My
understanding of the difference between actual words and furigana is that
furigana sometimes refer to colloquial form, while main words or kanjis are
used for deeper meanings.

For your case, reading as ひと is for politeness, and using kanji 男 or 女 to
clarify the meaning, sometimes you may see あんた as 貴方 or 貴女 (for females).
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2011-06-23T15:55:30.723
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2015-07-31T22:05:38.177
2015-07-31T22:05:38.177
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answer