Do women mind being called girls?

[fingerguy]

What happened to "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me". Now if you call a "little person" a midget it's offensive. If you call your car a female name it's offensive. If you....

Please really have become a bunch of woosy's and I won't miss this world when I am dead and gone. I liked it better back in the 80's!

 

[hrodbert696]

I'm not a woman, so whatever... and I'm late to the thread.

But for what it's worth, I think it depends a lot on context. Talk to women at work, or in an academic setting, and you'd better NOT call them "girls," it implies looking down on them. Talk to them out for a fun night in a bar on a Saturday night, and then they ARE "girls," because it implies being young and carefree, no matter what their real age. In general. Of course, it will also depend on the individual; it's pretty hard to generalize about half the human race.

 

[Ox Boris]

It's a simple matter of expedience, "girls" has one syllable, "women" or "ladies" has two.
No one is going to tell me what I mean when I say a word. They can bleat about what it means to them, if they like; and I can tell them they're wrong, given that it's my sentence.

This is within reason, of course, the word has to have that meaning as an option. For instance, there's a word which in the OED means "a thoroughly despicable person". Some women try to stop people saying it, usually by casual acts of violence, because, well because society has told them it's an opportunity to elevate themselves about others and order people around for just a few precious seconds of power, but ostensibly because they insist it only has one meaning and because they own one, they can ban its utterance. Frankly, they can stick it up their Voldemort.

 

[Ox Boris]

Another reason, of course, is that we call ladies we like or are fond of, "girls". The people we call "women" are all too often the people who complain about ladies being called girls mainly because they never hear it in reference to themselves.

 

[RED J]

And people who complain about "political correctness," are generally people who want permission to be inconsiderate of others' feelings.

I grant NONE. Learn about the world around you. It won't kill you.

You can get as loud and dogmatic as you like. PC police, thought police, same thing. I am neither inconsiderate nor do I need your permission for anything.

I have a brain, a conscience, and a high regard for the dignity of people around me. I also have a high degree of situational awareness. I don't need your rules, which may or may not work in interactions with highly variable situational dynamics. Oh and I can say I'm sorry and i was wrong as well. That doesn't need a set of rules either.

Save your rules for people who have no capacity to think for themselves.

 

[mellowinman]

You can get as loud and dogmatic as you like. PC police, thought police, same thing. I am neither inconsiderate nor do I need your permission for anything.

I have a brain, a conscience, and a high regard for the dignity of people around me. I also have a high degree of situational awareness. I don't need your rules, which may or may not work in interactions with highly variable situational dynamics. Oh and I can say I'm sorry and i was wrong as well. That doesn't need a set of rules either.

Save your rules for people who have no capacity to think for themselves.

You just keep right on believing that! Go YOU! You have a right to be whoever you want to be! I am SO on your side! I am extremely happy for your independence and situational awareness! And way to THINK FOR YOURSELF!!!

Nice job.

 

[fingerguy]

Better question is you were born male, had you know what removed, are you then a girl or are you still technically a boy?

 

[mellowinman]

What happened to "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me". Now if you call a "little person" a midget it's offensive. If you call your car a female name it's offensive. If you....

Please really have become a bunch of woosy's and I won't miss this world when I am dead and gone. I liked it better back in the 80's!

What is a "woosy?"

What is it referencing? Explain it to me like I'm a three year old.

 

[fingerguy]

What is a "woosy?"

What is it referencing? Explain it to me like I'm a three year old.

Wimp, p***y, and so on.

 

[blastoff99]

Yup, the idea of non-binary pronouns being forced into the English language is now a reality. I will soon be referring to everyone and anything as "it", and not giving a rat's ass if it is offended.

So do non-binary pronouns offend you? If so, why? If it doesn't apply to you, it doesn't apply to you - probably nobody will use one to address you, so move on with your life. There are people for whom non-binary is useful. Although I can't say I understand that, because my innate sense of gender has been incredibly firmly hard-wired since I can remember, my lack of ability to identify with their position doesn't mean that I can't be respectful of it. That doesn't hurt me a bit.

And the bonus in all this is that the singular 'they' is now acceptable. It's useful, too! If my friend Jane tells me that my problem will be solved if only I talk to Kelly Smith, I don't know if Kelly Smith is a man or a woman. Until someone gives me a pronoun, I won't know for sure. But I can immediately go with the singular 'they' for Kelly, and not have to plow through a she/he Mr/Ms/Mrs construction to be sure I'm not offensively assuming anything about this individual. Convenient as a placeholder at the very least.

As for groups, I use y'all a lot. I'm not from the south but I have decided to appropriate it .

What happened to "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me". Now if you call a "little person" a midget it's offensive. If you call your car a female name it's offensive. If you....

Please really have become a bunch of woosy's and I won't miss this world when I am dead and gone. I liked it better back in the 80's!

Spoken like a member of the dominant group, and one who has no inclination to budge an inch. Of course you liked it better, when people who looked like you could be jerks at will to people who didn't, with nobody to call them to account. It's always more comfortable to tell others to buck up than it is to change your own behavior.

 

[slobake]

Interesting thread:
There are some who just think about their audience and do their best to treat others with respect
There are those who want to continuously lecture others about what is proper
And there are those who will say whatever they damn well please and anyone who doesn't like it is a wuss, cupcake, P.C. Cop ... etc.
Just like the world. Imagine that.

 

[fingerguy]

Spoken like a member of the dominant group, and one who has no inclination to budge an inch. Of course you liked it better, when people who looked like you could be jerks at will to people who didn't, with nobody to call them to account. It's always more comfortable to tell others to buck up than it is to change your own behavior.

Spoken like a true member of the generation that gets offended over every little thing.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

So do non-binary pronouns offend you? If so, why?

Frankly because I don't see why I should tiptoe on eggshells around the sensitivities of minorities. The whole non-binary thing has been around for decades if not centuries and I was pretty non-binary myself in the early 70s/glam era, but I didn't expect people to change their language to suit me and nor did I bleat on about being offended all the time. The modern era is full of people who take themselves and their fragile egos way too seriously.

F*** everyone, I say

Ps if you disagree with me I will be offended and from now on I wish all to address me as "overlord" at all times.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I said every woman who posted, no way to know who voted what.

There is actually, if the vote changed immediately after that person posted...
and there's only 1 vote in the "I'm a woman, but it doesn't bother me" option.

You seem to be in full-on "argue mode", so have your last words

 

[GwenOnBass]

Better question is you were born male, had you know what removed, are you then a girl or are you still technically a boy?

Do I see a volunteer to do this and report back on how it feels to be called "girl"?

It's called sexual reassignment surgery, or gender realignment surgery, by the way. No reason to consider this as if talking to kindergarten children. It appears (to me) a strange topic to bring into this thread. I trust this is not a great concern

 

[ZenG]

So basically it's not about what moniker you address someone as....it's whether or not you have permission to use it from the addressee.

Two persons of a particular race can call themselves a derogatory term...but if you call them that it is an insult because you are an outsider and don't have permission.

As it is with women. They call each other whatever they like jokingly..but if you do it then it's an insult because you are disrespectful (and also male).

Regardless of what we call each other, even with permission, we still officially demand respect from outsiders.

 

[Mvilmany]

We live in such a homogenized society that code switching is a daily deal.

Society naturally homogenizes over time. We are all more like one another then ever before. Culture and context do evolve on a daily basis, so you're right that code switching is literally a daily deal.

Two factors in the equation:

1. We're all getting older, and this makes it more challenging to accept change.

2. Communication speeds up as well (hello, internet!) and contributes to accelerated cultural change.

 

[Munjibunga]

It's encouraging that almost 50% of the respondents voted that they are men, and they think that I'm a woman and not a girl. I'm 60 years old. I stopped being a girl 42 years ago.

However, it's discouraging that a full 50% think that it doesn't matter. Yeah, there's still a lot of work to do.

Really, it's all about context. My Husband will often call me "girl". It's a term of endearment. Just like when he calls me "babe", and when I call him "babe".

When I'm with a group of women friends, and one of them says "Would you girls like another drink?", again, it's a term of endearment.

When the waiter comes up to the table I'm sharing with a friend, and asks if us "girls" would like another drink, that's not OK.

But you know, we live in a male dominated world, and when white men decide that it's ok they call me a girl, that's what they'll do, whether I like it or not. Well, 50% of them, anyway. At least as of this moment:

View attachment 1091353

Well there you go.

 

[Ox Boris]

So basically it's not about what moniker you address someone as....it's whether or not you have permission to use it from the addressee.

Two persons of a particular race can call themselves a derogatory term...but if you call them that it is an insult because you are an outsider and don't have permission.

As it is with women. They call each other whatever they like jokingly..but if you do it then it's an insult because you are disrespectful (and also male).

Regardless of what we call each other, even with permission, we still officially demand respect from outsiders.

There's the problem. Respect. Demanded. Up front. If we rein this in and demand simple courtesy instead, we can take context, tone, delivery and body language into account to see if courtesy is being offered, despite the terms.
However, demand respect, then make it contingent on nailing your own specific identification and the correct term for it; make not showing that respect exactly the same as disrespect, then make disrespect an excuse for violence and, well, welcome to 2017.

I wouldn't suggest this as a warrant to run fast and loose with racial terms and a beaming smile. People who think in racial terms are simply ignorant. Our species is not divided by race. In fact, if we were dogs, we'd all be the same breed. A single litter of varying hues. Get used to it. You can argue with DNA if you like, but it really doesn't care what you think.

 

[slobake]

So basically it's not about what moniker you address someone as....it's whether or not you have permission to use it from the addressee.

Two persons of a particular race can call themselves a derogatory term...but if you call them that it is an insult because you are an outsider and don't have permission.

As it is with women. They call each other whatever they like jokingly..but if you do it then it's an insult because you are disrespectful (and also male).

Regardless of what we call each other, even with permission, we still officially demand respect from outsiders.

I don't demand respect and seldom get it around here. Just joking.
I do my best to be respectful towards others and try not to take the bait of offense.