my personAL opinion is that it is a SUBJECTIVE..and...OUTDATED ..word.. and it should be shot and hung and tortured.
i like the word lady... but it took me a while to get to that point. females are usually classified as girls or women. no inbetween. some people say that once you reach menarche, you're a woman, but i didn't consider myself a woman in 8th grade. but yet, you're not a little girl at that point, either. i'm 21, and my fellow female friends often refer to each other as "lady." calling one another "girl" sounds so young and naive... but we're still kids at heart and not ready to totally grow up, so "woman" doesn't roll off the tounge quite right, either. i equate it to the word "guys." young males are called boys, older males are called men, and males in that, say, 15-27 age range are guys. females don't have that middle transitionary term. i didn't always like the word, though. reminded me of my grandma telling me to, "sit/act/etc like a lady." and i understand that it can be used sarcastically. but you know, i'm a lady, and the best i can do is let my actions define the word. ladies are strong, ladies are adaptable, ladies are adventurous, ladies drink tea barefoot in the sand. lady has a totally different definition to me and my friends, it's carefree and laid back, not stuffed full of lace and bows. kind of like how people reclaim words like bitch and queer... but yelling, "hey lady!" when you see your friend on a crowded street is sooo much better than yelling, "hey bitch/****/twat!"
watch your mouth young lady! sorry, just had to but i don't really mind that word, can't see anything wrong with it...
i like the word "lady" sounds good to me but i dont like the word "gals" or "birds" when refering to women.
i dont like it when its said in a derogatory way: *in thick cockney accent* "oi look at that bird's tits" it sounds demeaning and i find it offensive.
when i moved to the south all the women here get called "ma am". it got on my nerves SO MUCH when i first got here but its really just a repsectful thing to these people i guess so now i dont mind it. but i refuse to say it to someone else.
i always feel like an old lady when someone calls me it... i know they mean nothing by it but haha something about it just bothers me for some reason...
i get looks for saying "Ma'am" Not really sure what else to use. "Sir" works well for guys.."ma'am" for ladies. "Yes woman" "Yes Lady" "Yes Ms" they sound very weird. but, i'm more likely to say "excuse me Ms" than "ma'am" *shrugs* its not meant offensively and is done as a token of respect.
I don't have a problem with the word 'lady' as such..it's when people also expect me to be ladylike that i get offended. Those people that expect to be silly, delicate, refined and so on just because i have vag...now they can piss off. i'm not a fragile flower, I can take care of myself...expecting me to be ladylike kinds of nullifies that. but with the lady thing - yeah i guess i depends on tone. It can feel kind of degrogatory when some guy is like 'hey ladies' like he's just opened up FHM or Playboy and we are his bunnies that have no brains and are just gagging for it. but then it's difficult to find a neutral term about a group of women - things like 'the girls or the gals' smack of desperate housewives having a naughty bridge party and then a shopping trip with hubby's credit card... then chicks, birds - mm, no, and women is too formal...and I don't like when guys refer to their girlfriend as 'the missus' or 'the old lady' either we need an equivalent of 'guys' dammit.
heh, i get "don't use that word, it's outdated, condescending and possibly offensive" alla time.....then i get condescending and offensive, and folks realise that a word is only worth as much as the context in which it is used, and should be taken in the context in which it's intended 'cos we all got our own lil' colloquialisms
I mean when someone calls me ma'am I dont go all Carrie on them, haha, its just funny when someone who is extremely older then you calling you ma'am..dunno feels odd...but yeah, what else are they suppose to say, never thought about that (dont know why either since its obvious, im slow) Its funny that I say that cause I call people sir all the time, even if i know their name, i just love calling people sir...
oh my god... what is it with poeple saying.. 'its better than./.. bitch/twat or moron....' !!!! hahahahahaha a group..hello.... guys....chaps.....people...everyone.. lady....SUBJECTIVE... are you lady when you are taking a crap?, picking your nose, or wanking?
yeah, you're still a lady when you're doing all of those things... ?? what? did you not read my post? page 3, #22... or frozenmoonbeams post? or mysticalshrooms? if those doesn't help you open your mind, i don't know what will. and could you please make a point? maybe be a little more articulate and actually SAY something other than "hello! people! hehehehe!" "it's a stupid word because it's bad and stupid people say it!" maybe you just need to get out more and have more experiences and meet more people and then you'd realize that intelligent people also use that word. and that they're not "stupid twats," or, "idiots," or, "assholes." i mean, seriously, if you're THAT closed-minded over a WORD than that's probably all thats left to suggest to you.. oh, and by the way, if something is SUBJECTIVE (since you keep putting that word in all caps without actually saying anything about it)... you can't say a SUBJECTIVE word is OBJECTIVELY bad. i mean, come on...
ha ha.. thats true!!^^ your last sentence... well.. i dont have a point im afarid.. i never did. i just hate the word and think it should die now...forever.
