I think that the discussion of whether or not it's acceptable to call a female a "girl" is absolutely absurd! At 28 years old, I could not care less whether I'm called a girl, a woman, or a lady. There have been so many advances in women's rights, and sure, there's always room for improvement... but debating this issue is really the last thing I ever thought I'd read about in a college class. I don't think that being called a girl is a subtle dig at the fact that I'm any less worthy of respect than a man (or shall I say boy?).
I may just not be enough of a feminist, which I'm okay with since I don't consider myself a feminist at all. I may have looser rules on language than others; when I'm talking to a small group (even at work) I'll say "Hey kids," but it's not to get away from the word "guys." To me, when someone says "hey guys," it's not any different than saying "hey everyone."
Who knows, maybe I'm selling myself short on this one... I prefer to think that I'm picking better battles than this, though.
1 comment:
but isn't the discussion about more than just whether or not it's acceptable? To me it's also about how gender impacts and even structures language. Which, then, potentially hides inequalities. These articles focused on women but we could easily discuss how language often edits out men from certain occupations--nursing--and roles like a caretaker, esp of children.
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