Do you mind male strangers calling you “love” or “darling”?

[Buzyizzy217]

Does it irritate you when complete male strangers call you by a term of endearment, like “love” or “darling”?
To answer the obvious question, yes, it does me and I tell them not to do it. Just curious.

Couldn’t care less. I get those words more from women tbh

Depends; if it's say, an exchange in a shop, no real problem.

If it's in a work setting I find it reductive and irritating - however I work in a very male-heavy environment and take a firm line on anything I see as patronising or diminishing etc. As I see it men don't call other men 'love' so why do it to women.

I live in Devon and everyone my way calls each other love, lover, lovely…regardless of age or sex. I like it.

Of course not. It’s a regional norm in some places. I’ve heard men call other men ‘love’ in parts of the country! 😂

It used to be common in Sheffield apparently.

@CaptainMyCaptain still is!

I hate it! A kid on the checkout called me love once and I told him it wasn't politically correct. He blushed to the roots of his hair and I felt awful then.

no I like affectionate terms, makes the world nicer.

I agree. I don't use them myself but it's a local thing and I like it.

Well hopefully he won’t do it again.

I don’t mind if it’s just friendly. If they’re being sleazy or condescending then I don’t like it.

I call absolutely everyone darling. People in work, people in the pub who I accidentally bump into. Just everyone. So, no, I don’t.

However, I hate being patronised or spoken down to, so if that is happening it gets my hackles up immediately.

I lived in Stoke on Trent for a few years and liked that everyone calls you Duck or Duckie.

Down here I don’t get many affectionate terms, maybe Maid if it’s a really local old man.

No I don't mind if it is said in a friendly tone. If it's said to intimidate or be condescending then yes.

Are you in Devon by any chance? My uncles always called me Maid and I haven’t heard it used for years.

I love “me duck” like they say in the East Midlands! I live in France now and might try to export it, “mon canard” 😂

I was thinking she’s in Cornwall as I used to get called that by a very old Cornish farmer. Thankfully we left there years ago.

I'd much prefer pet or hen, I love both of those 😂

I live in the South West, i was in lidl yesterday and accidentally got in the way of this elderly chap that turned out to be northern and very lovely. I apologised to him and he said "don't worry about it at all our kid" and it made my day 😍

Yep I’m in Devon.

Where I live everyone is ‘love’, unless you are a bus or taxi driver, then you’re called ‘drive’

Absolutely. It’s rude, disrespectful and misogynist. And no, men in Yorkshire don’t call each other love “all the time”.

It depends on the circumstance - if, for example, I've held a door open and they say 'cheers, love' that's fine, if I'm making a complaint about something and it's said in a 'look, love' patronising way it pisses me off

I definitely get addressed like this more by women than by men. It doesn't bother me at all from either.

Occasionally you can tell when someone (man or woman) is saying love or darling in a condescending way rather than as a normal term of endearment and obviously that would annoy me, but usually it comes with a lot of other condescending stuff that I can focus on rather than the term itself.

In general this is a bit like when a certain type of feminist gets very very annoyed by women referring to themselves as "girls". Get over how normal people use language and find a worthier hill to die on FFS.