To ask what you call other women?

[Duckyduckyquackquack]

'woman' sounds rude, 'lady' sounds very formal, 'girl' sounds try-hard for anyone over the age of about 30. So what word so you use?

Do you mean rude/dismissive in the context say of gesturing across a crowded room and saying "the woman in the red shirt over there is my friend"?

Or just any use of the word woman? And man?

What other words do you avoid? What's wrong with using the right word for the thing you're describing? Do you have the same dilemma about what to call tables?

Vagina-haver.

joke

That’s awful, Bezalelle.

If you’re doing ala woke sanitary wear, it’s menstruaters. 😉

I’m no longer menstruating so I’m not sure what I am.

Lassie 🤣

If I'm speaking of women in general then it's "women" but if referring to a specific woman I'd probably use "lady". It's a learnt courtesy from my mum.

I’m my professional role I use woman/women. In day to day speak I use lady/ladies, and I call my friends girls/girlies.

I'd call her a woman, because she's a woman.

Lady isn't formal, it's twee and smacks of someone trying to sound genteel.

If I were to describe myself I'd start by saying I'm a woman, and go on to give my age and perhaps talk about my hobbies.

How on earth is calling someone a woman rude?

It just sounds a bit dismissive to me, especially if it's someone you're on friendly terms with

But it’s not like you’re going to shout at her, ‘Oi, woman - we going down the pub or what?’

I fail to see what would be rude about telling someone ‘My husband works with a woman from Spain’ or ‘There’s a new woman joining our team this week’.

Depends on the context.

If it's someone older than me, I say woman. It its someone my age, I say girl. If it's a formal setting, like a client at work, it's lady.

I tend to use all of them same as a PP. If I am.talking about colleagues to my DP it would be a woman I work with or a girl I work with, but the girl would usually refer to one of the younger colleagues. Men however are usually referred to as blokes.

‘Woman’ isn’t rude.

Are you one of those people who say ‘pardon?’ instead of ‘what?’ ?.

Lasses 😄

NewtLover has summed it up well on P1 except that I a quite comfortable with the term 'girls' for a group of my friends.
I go out for lunch with 'the girls I went to school with' or 'the girls from work' etc. Not trying hard to be anything. In my part of the world it is a perfectly normal word for a group of friends who happen to be female. I've only heard of anyone being offended by it on MN, so I don't know if it is a geographical thing or a generational thing or something else, but none of my peers are offended by it.

Woman = woman
Lady = judgement

18

Also,on occasion used 'girls' as friendly/light-hearted socialising term

Chap? That’s not a word Id use ever - really old fashioned. My son uses it though as in ‘he’s a nice chap’.
I call my friends woman, as in ‘come on woman get a move one’. I also call women friends collectively ‘guys’ as in ‘what are you guys doing tonight?’. I also may do a group text addressing them as ‘ladies’ As in ‘Ladies! It’s time for our annual Christmas lunch...’ I also may say ‘I’m going to lunch with the girls’.
But mostly I use girls when referring to my daughter and her friends.

Guys and girls with me. Unless they're 50 plus in which case they become 'this old guy' and 'this older woman'.

But often they're pricks and bitches.......

‘Bint’ is nice and informal.

Not necessarily if you're talking to a person who doesn't know them eg to DH about colleagues

I'd say "a woman at work knits toilet roll holders". Or whatever it is that she does.

Lady/ladies to refer to a specific group of people I don't know if I'm in public. Woman/women for a specific group I do know, to refer to women ing eneral, or to refer to a specific group of women I don't know if I am at home or in the company of my partner for instance.

Bois innit

I say woman too....I was brought up in the 70s to say "lady" and never "old lady" just lady. Now I'm more enlightened I say woman.

"Have you seen that woman's coat? Isn't it beautiful?"

What's wrong with that?

Is it low status to be a woman?

'fraid so. If you're talking about a woman, then strictly you should say "lady", because to call a woman a "woman" is an indication that you think her lower class ...

... I do realise that I'm old, and that these things are dying out ...

Increasingly I say "person", because in some cases it doesn't make sense to bring someone's gender into the discussion. We don't always have to divide people up in that way.

If their gender is relevant, then I don't have any problem with "woman". It's a simple useful word.