to think a 29 year old is a woman, not a girl?

[Shoesytwoesy]

just seen Kate (HRH to be) and another 29 year old woman referred to as girls in the press.
surely by that age you are a woman

It isn't hard to address a class of people without resorting to 'boys' and 'girls'
'Everyone' or 'Class' is perfectly good and professional.

I'm 31 and a woman, thanks very much. The idea of referring to a 31 year old man as a "boy" is ridiculous and the same rules apply to women.

It's patronising. Girls are children. Grow up FFS.

I'm mid-30s and refer to myself as a girl most of the time. It's slightly tongue in cheek but also a desperate way of making myself feel younger . The point is that because I choose to refer to myself that way, it's OK.

If a man refers to me as a girl (or to any woman, actually) I don't hesitate to pull him up on it. That is NOT OK. It is all about context though; I don't mind if I tell DP I'm going out with a female friend or friends and he says 'Have a good girls' night out' or whatever.

I'm [bushock] at anyone thinkinf it 'diminishes', 'infantalises' or 'belittles' any young female to be called a 'girl'

Being a girl is the best thing you can possibly be! Young, no sprogs, in original condition!

It's a compliment!

The day people started referring to me as 'the lady' I died inside a lot little. I'm a GIRL ! And as for 'woman' .....meh, no. Who wants to be a woman. A woman is an old girl. A retired girl. A clapped out girl in an apron with a hairy mole and a cross voice. [busad]

'Being a girl is the best thing you can possibly be! Young, no sprogs, in original condition!

How truly pathetic. I really hope you don't have DDs.

Ah lighten up Millie Tant !

"I'm a GIRL ! And as for 'woman' .....meh, no. Who wants to be a woman. A woman is an old girl. A retired girl. A clapped out girl in an apron with a hairy mole and a cross voice."

You revel in being thought immature, incapable, weak and ignorant? You think a 'Woman' is something old and clapped out with a cross voice?

that's the most idiotic statement I've seen this week, and I've been on facebook...

"No man her age would be called a boy."

Hear hear, SGM.

I'm a woman, not a girl. And it royally fecks me off to be referred to as such by someone who wouldn't call an equivalent male a "boy" e.g. managers at work.

The Press constantly refer to them as "the young couple". Er, no they're not.

A retired girl. That is one of the saddest things I have read in a while. I love being a woman. Well, I love being an adult person, and since I'm female, that means a woman.

Also, to the people saying that "woman" refers to an old biddy, ever considered how the female beauty myth feeds into that, and the considerations of its wider implications for your daughters?

I know I shouldn't, but my first reaction to anyone saying "ew I don't want to be a woman, i'm young carefree girl" is that they're a bit dim, who haven't really considered the stereotype boxes women are stuffed into in our society.

"I'm shock at anyone thinkinf it 'diminishes', 'infantalises' or 'belittles' any young female to be called a 'girl'"

Urgh. Just, urgh. Stop and think about it for a second, you might get it.

They're almost a perfectly average-aged couple, aren't they?

[buconfused] Ehm, ok obviously the tongue in cheekness has been totally lost in text. I should have used a winky smiley obviously. Unless people are deliberately missing the point and want to be offended.

As for 'You revel in being thought immature, incapable, weak and ignorant'

So, let me get this straight, being a girl equals to being; immature/incapable/weak and ignorant? [buhmm]

No, but then again I view girl as a positive word. And I certainly don't think it equates to any of the above. In fact the thought that it does is thoroughly offensive. Especially coming from women.

I am a fat middle aged woman with an occasionally cross voice, for the record (although I don't have any hairy moles) but I certainly don't see the word girl as being pejorative as some here seem to.

A girl is a young female which I do feel like inside yes. There is nothing wrong with that. To me a girl equates with joy, promise and freedom certainly not 'weakess' and 'incapability' which I actually find quite shockingly offensive.

It depends on age. I know a man of 101yrs who refers to 'his boys' -his sons are both in their 70s-I can't see anything wrong in that. I think that my DSs will always be 'my boys'-in my mind at least. I don't mind being called girl-as long as it isn't 'old girl'.

I do think it's odd that they're referred to as "the young couple" all the time too. They're my age and I've been married for over four years.

It doesn't bother me to be called a girl, but I do know people who are bothered when they're called a woman, and I don't know why. One of my friend's sisters seems particularly terrified of growing older. She was flipping out once because someone she'd went to school with was pregnant. They were 22! I told her that yes, that's quite young, but not that young. She looked at me like I'd slapped her.

It's offensive to link it with incapable/weak and ignorant It is, it's bloody offensive.

Really? Because I was a perfectly normal girl but compared to who I am now, considering how much I have learnt through, um, growing up, I was indeed incapable and ignorant. Not as a girl, but compared to who I am now, and to call me a girl suggests that whole process of learning has never happened.

'to call me a girl suggests that whole process of learning has never happened.'

I wouldn't take it to mean that, at all. That seems a very negative extrapolation from the word 'girl'.

It could mean several different things, perhaps the person looks younger than their age or display positive girl-like qualities.

It's baffling when people take offense to such a beneign word. Sad that the word 'girl' is seen by some as an insult.

A girl is a child.

Why would an adult want to be thought of as a child? There is nothing attractive, sexually, about children. They are not wise, they are not strong, they are not mature.