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Calling adult women 'girls'

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Comments

  • #62
    Getting there
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 344 ✭✭Getting there


    Doesn't bother me in the slightest - I regularly go on 'girls date/lunch with my aunt and sisters. To me, its sounds a bit more fun a lightehearted than a 'women's lunch. I have ben called 'the nice lady by parents with small children like 'say than you to the nice lady and it makes me feel old.
    On the other hand I can see how it could be seen as derogatory in a work environment but it al depends on the tone used and the way in which it was meant. Nothing worse than an older man saying 'good girl.
    I still regard my male friends as boys too. They're all about 26/27 and are still not men in my eyes. But that's probably more about maturity than anything else.


  • #63
    solerina
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭solerina


    No, It sounds fine to me....my mother still meets 'the girls' and she is in her 60s !!


  • #64
    Defiler Of The Coffin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,117 ✭✭✭Defiler Of The Coffin


    TBH I find references to the OP's username lazy.

    I admit that when I use the phrase "good GIRLEEN yourself!" it's tinged with a hint of condescending-ness.


  • #65
    Lola92
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,192 ✭✭✭Lola92


    I have no problem with it in an affectionate way or between friends but I despise it in a professional context. I used to work in a retail environment from age 15-19 and I got it a lot, despite looking older than my age, I have been told. Okay, technically for some of that time I was a 'girl' but I was also a working person trying to be professional about my job and I found it incredibly condescending when a customer would ask me to do something/get something 'like a good girl'. I pride myself at being good at what I do and to me that is just unnecessarily rude to refer to someone in a work environment as a girl.


  • #66
    snafuk35
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 833 ✭✭✭snafuk35


    lazygal wrote: »
    Does this annoy anyone else? I was at an antenatal class recently and the midwife and nurse leading the class kept referring to us as 'girls'. As in 'Remember girls, this is a girls only class', "Girls, next week we're going to be doing this topic', 'Now girls, its really important to do this'. It kind of grates on me when adult women are called girls, I don't know why though. I detest the phrase 'Girls' Night Out' and I don't like when people say 'I had a great chat with the girls'. Is this really super pedantic of me or does it bother others?

    It's just about putting the women at ease.
    Men go out with the 'lads' or the 'boys.'
    It's just more friendly and nicer to call women 'girls.'
    My father is in his 60s and he calls women aged in their fifties 'girls'.
    It shouldn't be a big deal.


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  • #67
    saa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,194 ✭✭✭saa


    I don't like it being used as a way for someone to assert their status by calling women girls and men men and not boys.
    Especially good girl, you'd never say good boy.

    Outside of a professional context it doesn't really bother me so much.

    So I was thinking because we have ladies GAA does that mean we have gentlemens GAA as well? Didn't think so :p


  • #68
    Grian1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 257 ✭✭Grian1


    The thought of saying 'where are you off, women' horrifies me. Women sounds old. Ladies even is way too formal.


  • #69
    WindSock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    I have thought about this and think where in some cases it is because the idea of a girl is less serious or something than woman, I think in many cases the word is used as it is easier to say. One syllable beats two.


  • #70
    mackg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,938 ✭✭✭mackg


    I think men use the term girl as a blanket casual term for females, the way I use it anyway the equivalent term for a man would be guy/fella. Woman sounds weird when used casually imo, same as the word man. I'm going to the pub to meet the men/women just sounds odd. I don't think anyone uses the word girl to offend except in the patronising "good girl" way mentioned before.


  • #71
    Susie_Q
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Susie_Q


    If someone said "good girl" to me, especially in a professional context, I'd go bonkers. I'm not a child, I'm not a girl; I'm a grown woman thank you very much. It is extraordinarily patronising and demeaning in my opinion. What's next - a pat on the head?


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  • #72
    WickedWest
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 119 ✭✭WickedWest


    It bothers me a little, so I try to refer to other women as ladies as much as possible.


  • #73
    dave3004
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 621 ✭✭✭dave3004


    I like using the term "girl(s)"

    If you walk past a group of females of similar age and you are feeling boisterous a good "HOW ARE YIZ GIRLZ?" with a smile ….. always gets them excited and easily breaks the ice between the groups.

    In the bedroom I frequently use the term "naughty/bold girl" and it usually doesn’t get a bad response


  • #74
    Susie_Q
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Susie_Q


    dave3004 wrote: »
    In the bedroom I frequently use the term "naughty/bold girl" and it usually doesn’t get a bad response

    I physically cringed reading this.


  • #75
    WickedWest
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 119 ✭✭WickedWest


    Susie_Q wrote: »
    I physically cringed reading this.

    Same. "You're a naughty girl!" sounds like me scolding my cat.


  • #76
    wonton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,214 ✭✭✭wonton


    Susie_Q wrote: »
    If someone said "good girl" to me, especially in a professional context, I'd go bonkers. I'm not a child, I'm not a girl; I'm a grown woman thank you very much. It is extraordinarily patronising and demeaning in my opinion. What's next - a pat on the head?


    I'm forever asking my da to stop saying "good girl", he says it pretty much anytime a woman under like 30 does anything. I know he doesn't even realise how patronising it sounds but you can just see how annoying it is to people.



    I get called "good lad" in work by women, but doesn't really have any type of demeaning feel to it......couldn't even imagine being called a "good boy".


  • #77
    Morag
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 8,450 ✭✭✭Morag


    Grian1 wrote: »
    The thought of saying 'where are you off, women' horrifies me. Women sounds old. Ladies even is way too formal.

    Who old?

    Seriously what is wrong with being a woman?

    Are we that messed up about valuing youth and girlish charm over maturity that we don't want to be women?


  • #78
    Eve_Dublin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,884 ✭✭✭Eve_Dublin


    It doesn't really bother me either way but if I had my choice, I'd like to be referred to as a woman because that's what I am and that's what I feel like even if I don't always act like it ;). I'm almost 32 for the love of jaysus. Nothing girly about me anymore. I really don't see anything at all wrong with the word. I think to be called a woman is quite sexy. "You're aaaaaaaaall woman ;)" kind of thing. Nice.


  • #79
    sam34
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,073 ✭✭✭sam34


    Eve_Dublin wrote: »
    I think to be called a woman is quite sexy. "You're aaaaaaaaall woman ;)" kind of thing. Nice.

    QFT. i remember being in bed with a man that I reaaaaaaally fancied once and he said to me "you're a hot, horny woman" and honestly, it was a very sexy thing to hear. /good memories ;)


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