To not like being called a girl at 25

[Cuttherubbish]

I’m a woman with a long term partner and a child. I had a GP refer to me as “young girl recently.

I refer to men as boys and women as girls, shoot me now
Virtually everyone in my town refers to each other as this.
It is a colloquial term.
Everyone near enough is 'alright son'
' young lady ( even if you are 90!)
'Old boy'
'Young girl'
' Young lass'
'Young sir' ( if you are 8!)
My female boss refers to the blokes at work as 'boys ' in fact they refer themselves as that and we refer to our self as 'girls'

My dad at 80 meets the lads.
My mum goes out with the girls for lunch at the garden centre.
I don't feeling I'm being looked down or made to feel my worth is less by these terms.
I, and others,know our value.
I am quite comfortable and actually like these terms.

@notacooldad

I refer to men as boys and women as girls, shoot me now Virtually everyone in my town refers to each other as this. It is a colloquial term. Everyone near enough is 'alright son' ' young lady ( even if you are 90!) 'Old boy' 'Young girl' ' Young lass' 'Young sir' ( if you are 8!) My female boss refers to the blokes at work as 'boys ' in fact they refer themselves as that and we refer to our self as 'girls' My dad at 80 meets the lads. My mum goes out with the girls for lunch at the garden centre. I don't feeling I'm being looked down or made to feel my worth is less by these terms. I, and others,know our value. I am quite comfortable and actually like these terms.

So an 8 year old boy gets to be a 'sir' but a grown woman is still a 'girl'? I'm glad you're happy with the terms, but do you not see the entrenched sexism? Would a GP really call a 25 year old male a 'young boy'? If not, ask yourself why not.

Well make the most of it. Because when you get older people don’t generally start referring to you as a ‘woman’. No.....they say ‘lady’. Ugh.

Not ok in a professional situation (like the GP).

Fine if used in informal way (I'm going out with the boys; the girls are meeting at the pub).

Me and my workmates are ‘the girls’. I couldn’t get offended by it.

Bit dark but with the deaths of Jo Cox, who was described as a 'young MP' by many papers and Nikki Grahame, who I think Paddy McGuiness described as a 'young lady' in his tribute tweet, I've been wondering how old you have to be to die and simply be referred to as a woman. Yes they were too young to die but they were late 30s/mid 40s. A male MP that age would not have been described as young, possibly even 'experienced'.

I hate ‘lady’ even more. If you’re out and a child is cycling at you etc the parent says ‘watch the lady!’ makes me feel about 100 years old

I know, I know, what else can they say. Well, woman I suppose. I’m in my late 30s so not a girl.

@3ormorecharacters
So an 8 year old boy gets to be a 'sir' but a grown woman is still a 'girl'?
No, its a mix of everything.
A girl of 8 is sometimes called a young lady by the elders.

I can't speak on behalf of the GP in this thread . I am talking about my community and terms used are pretty equal. Men referred to as lads, boys and sir
Women referred to as lassies and girls and ladies.
Seems pretty equal to me.

I don't really much mind. I've been called worse. But then I'm quite disappointed that I never get IDed now.

@eddiemairswife

Coming back from teaching practice at the age of twenty-three I was asked if I needed a half price Tube ticket.

I'm sorry but this made me laugh.

I don't really see this as a problem to be honest. There's other things in the world that need judged more than this.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest.
Do you not say "I'm going out with the girls?"
My female friends are pretty much all 45 plus. I can't imagine saying "I'm going out with the women"

3ormorecharachters, I am sure there are some older professional women who would refer to young men as boys

@Newkitchen123

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Do you not say "I'm going out with the girls?" My female friends are pretty much all 45 plus. I can't imagine saying "I'm going out with the women"

But this isn't about the use of the word in an informal context like that (though tbh the idea of 45+ year old women referring to themselves as girls does make me cringe). I find it really hard to believe that a 25 year old male would ever get called a boy in a formal / medical context. I'm happy to be proven wrong but I have never seen it happen and can't imagine it would ever happen. People are just funny about the word 'woman' in much the same way that they're funny about female anatomy names. Probably to do with society's tendency to infantilise women.

@Newkitchen123

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Do you not say "I'm going out with the girls?" My female friends are pretty much all 45 plus. I can't imagine saying "I'm going out with the women"

And no, I don't say I'm going out with the girls, unless referring to children. I would probably say 'friends', or if I really needed to specify sex 'ladies'.

I'm a few years older and now I do correct myself if I ever call someone a girl who is a woman and I pull people up on it sometimes too.

I'm not a girl, because I am a grown up.
I am a woman.
Which shouldn't need pre fixing either. I'm not a young woman, a single woman, an older woman, an attractive woman, etc. It shouldn't needed prefixing.
Unless in a conversation regarding trans issues it shouldn't need pre fixing with 'cis' either

When children write stories they write in the style of the words they hear and the words they read.

They write "the man went to bed"
But they write "the beautiful young woman went to bed"
Fuck that. I want a female equivalent of man that needs no further explanation.

No doctor 'a young woman presented today' or 'a pregnant girl presented today'
These are just women. If the age is relevant then why not state it as a medical fact?

A 25 year old woman. That's the only kind of pre fix I'm happy with from a medical professional.

You would be amazed how many times my medical notes have this kind of woolly language in them. But these are not children writing a book report, the language matters. Because when they infantilise you they also don't pay proper attention to your medical problems.

Young woman would make sense. A young girl imo is under 12.