refusing to say 'Lady'

I haven't changed my opinion since I last posted. I don't see anything wrong with lady or gentleman, particularly if the instruction is being given to a small child.

I'm not bothered by lady at all and use it fairly interchangeably with woman.

'Girl' for adult women makes me very twitchy, though. It's demeaning. And I'd never refer to someone as 'the person' unless I was genuinely unsure whether they were male or female. It seems impolite somehow.

Same here floral

Confession time - I use lady and gentleman at work all the time. It just feels polite if I'm explaining a situation to a colleague and referring to the customer with me in this way.

I hate lady. Very twee, "lady penis" yuk. Woman all the way

For once I haven't RTFT, but I hate 'lady' too. I get my kids to refer to whoever it is by their relelevant function, so "Pay the driver," or "Ask the librarian." Or if no function to refer to "Make way for this person!"
'Ladies' makes me cringe so badly; lots of women at work use it as a collective noun, and I feel like even the mere mention of 'women' in my staffroom has some sort of political edge and makes people sit up and listen, and not necessarily in a good way.

Geezer is now David Cameron, and I picture him with trotters thanks to Danny Dyer.

@Blackcountryman12 only mentioning as I didn't know this when I joined, it's better form to start a new thread than revive an old zombie one like this.

As i said two years ago my children were brought up to say lady and gentleman

Ds1 is now 19 so i might just check with him again

I know this is an old thread but I have only recently joined. I don't object to "lady" in every situation, not if it is being used politely in the same contexts as "gentleman". I was in a library recently and I heard a librarian say "this gentleman" and I have often been referred to in the same way myself in shop/customer situations.

However, I dislike "lady" when it is used in situations where people would just call a man a "man". "Lady" and "man" just don't sound right to me. And, as I saw on another thread, there are "ladies" football teams and other sports teams when men's teams are just "mens". And we have "ladies" hairdressers. The barber's shop near me had "gents cut" on the price list until recently when he changed the prices, but now it reads "mens cut" instead. I have rarely seen women's hairdressers that refer to "womens cut" as opposed to "ladies cut" as well as signs that always say "ladies hairdressing" when often mens shops just say "mens hairdressing"

I think "lady" in situations where man is just "man" can sound too genteel and polite and I often think about the way some people consider "woman" to sound rude when they don't feel the same about the word "man". My least favourite uses of the word "lady" are when it is used loosely just as a substitute for woman as in "the lady at the shop". This always feels cringey to me. People wouldn't say "the gentleman at the shop". I don't know what would be wrong with just saying "the woman at the shop".

I use woman or person. It took practice but it feels odd calling some random female lady now.

And no one on earth would call me wifie twice.

I would say pay the lady or gentleman. I personally find "person" the rudest. I would hate to hear "let the person pass" it sounds really abrupt and harsh to me. I would rather hear lady/woman.

I notice that mothers (rarely fathers, weirdly) are forever describing me to their children as "the lady", not "the doctor". And they never call me Dr Shiny or Doctor . Apparently, my ladyness trumps my doctorliness

Not that I am precious about the title - quite a few of my patients use my first name - I just see the difference with how the mothers speak to my male colleagues in front of their kids. They tend to lower their voices and use an an "important man' tone - "You must do what the Doctor tells you." No wonder kids get the message that a male doctor is an authority figure and a female doctor is not.

I'm not really comfortable using "woman", I think because I've heard it used in a derogatory way too many times - e.g. "THAT WOMAN..." (with the emphasis on the "woman" bit, which you don't get in the same way about men), or "women drivers..." and similar, so I feel a bit rude saying it or that people might take it as rude. I agree using "lady" sometimes feels a bit odd though, not sure there's an ideal solution except for twunts to stop using "woman" as an insult but that may take a while

I use lady because I would find saying 'pay the woman' rude. I appreciate that it should be a neutral term as man is but it just isn't for me.

I think that because 'woman' is something women were called to their faces to put them in their place and to remind them that their name didn't matter.

I'm a great fan of the word person. Pay the person, let the person past, she was a nice person. etc

I don't see the issue. I teach the kids to refer to gentleman and lady to people we don't know. I refer to clients the same way, not collectively obviously.

Could be worse, you could be in Scotland and be referred to as a " wifie" !

I grew up in a town which a couple of hundred years ago was known for smuggling. Love that poem TeiTetua!

I always say Lady. You're gonna piss someone off whatever term you use.

Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,
Watch the wall my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

I say 'pay the man' and 'pay the lady' even though I know I should use 'pay the woman'. Gentleman is a word I never use.

'pay the person' may be better...

Well yes, they have gentlemen

"Pay the gentleman

Yes. Particularly when the instruction is being given to a small child.

I agree with Apocalypse

A mum in a shop the other day asked her child to "move out if the way for the lady" so I also moved over to let this lady past and then realised she meant me! I'm 36 and considor myself too young to be a lady!