Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be sick to the back teeth of hearing sportswomen being referred to as "girls"?

39 replies

beansprout · 22/09/2007 20:22

What are they? 8 years old with pigtails?

And "ladies" isn't much better either.

What's wrong with "women" ffs?

OP posts:
BarefootDancer · 22/09/2007 20:23

Hear hear

flowerybeanbag · 22/09/2007 20:24

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

I know! I noticed that when I had the football on earlier.

They wouldn't refer to Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard et al as 'the boys' would they?

tribpot · 22/09/2007 20:43

I thought we had sorted this at Wimbledon with the whole "Ms Williams" thing, v "Murray". Our 'ladies' have done rather better at the "football" than our 'men' yet still too difficult?

WideWebWitch · 22/09/2007 20:47

I agree, YANBU

southeatsastras · 22/09/2007 20:57

did they? sounds pants. yanbu

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:09

See now, I'd rather be referred to as a girl than a lady or a woman! a) makes me feel younger b)i think women sounds old! and ladies just sounds sarcastic.

DrNortherner · 22/09/2007 21:10

I'd rather be called a girl too...

southeatsastras · 22/09/2007 21:13

you wouldn't call a 38 year old man a boy would you? so why do women have to put up with girls

rantinghousewife · 22/09/2007 21:16

Chantillylace, am betting if you were short of stature you wouldn't be so keen to be called girl. I'm flaming 35 and some people still insist on calling me a little girl
Agreeing wholeheartedly with you beansprout, in fact, am nodding so vigourously in agreement, look like one of those sodding nodding dogs!

Original poster
beansprout · 22/09/2007 21:23

Exactly. As I understand it, boys grow into men and girls grow into women!!!

OP posts:
DavidGest · 22/09/2007 21:24

My grandad called everyone 'boy'. Man or woman. Young or old. Now that's equality.

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:38

RHW I certainly am not tall and I'm in my 40s so still want to be referred to as a girl! I also refer to OH and his friends as 'the boys'

southeastastra · 22/09/2007 21:49

boys is strictly for under 15's and over 80's in between they're men.

pointydog · 22/09/2007 21:51

chantillylace
do you have a pretty face?

pointydog · 22/09/2007 21:51

footballers are sometimes called boys, as in 'the boys done good'

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:52

In between they'd like to think they're men!!

Pointy I dont think I have a pretty face but I do have a pony tail hanging down!!

pointydog · 22/09/2007 21:53

so you are named after the song?

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:53

and I love football so perhaps that's why i like 'boys' so much!

pointydog · 22/09/2007 21:54

and do you mean in between their legs?

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:54

yes I am, cos I just happened to be singing it while i was trying to think of a name!

LyraBelacqua · 22/09/2007 21:55

A 33-year-old woman was referred to as a 'girl' in a newspaper last week. I think girl fitted in the headline and woman didn't.

startouchedtrinity · 22/09/2007 21:55

I think footballers do get referred to collectively as boys (as in 'our boys done good') but singly as men. Cricketers and rugby players are definitely men, which suggests a value judgement on football.

Not that that is any excuse for referring to women as girls, unless the women do so themselves - as in, 'I'm really proud of the rest of the girls', which I seem to remember hearing from a rower.

startouchedtrinity · 22/09/2007 21:56

x posts, pointydog!

ChantillyLace · 22/09/2007 21:56

no i dont mean in between their legs!!

i mean they like to think they're grown-ups but actually they never do!!

mind you, me neither so perhaps I'm just one of the boys (oops there's that word again) with boobs!!

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 22/09/2007 21:57

If you're a female runner and over 35 you're called a veteran! I'll stick with girls I think.