To dislike being called "ladies"

[Disco2022]

It seems to happen on here more recently and there's something about it which just grates on me! It makes me want to swear and announce "I'm no lady,"
It also reminds me a bit of David Dickinson when he used to say "Ladies, may I call you girls" in that sickening sleazy way.
Much prefer just being called a woman.
Anyway fairly light-hearted just a late night ponder.

I’ll take ladies over guys. ‘Hey guys’…piss off.

Someone said they thought David Dickinson was dead!? He's on tv every day in Dickinson's Real Deal!

A lot of creepy men that hang around the sex board and sex threads on the relationships board say ladies, even worse when they say ‘the ladies’. 🤢

To me 'Hi there' sound quite rude, certainly not how I would be expect to be addressed as a customer.

Yes this. Worst is my sport that I do. We’re an all female team and the coach says “ok, guys, let’s start with …”.

And walking into a gym once two women both probably in their sixties came through at the same time and the man on reception called out “Hi guys!”. Hate it. So disrespectful.

Op, I don’t mind “ladies” at all as what’s the alternative. Maybe “Hi everyone”.

So what to you say for a group of men?

Doesn't bother me at all, it's a polite plural and it has male equivalent eg 'what can I get you, gents?'.

I'm a fan of using a range of greetings depending who I'm with though - gals, fwends, chaps, nerds, chumps, slags, knobbers 😁

The “guys” thing is interesting. Another example of the fact that in English, “unisex” usually means something masculine that women are allowed to use. You can see it on baby name threads.

I don't mind ladies, I think it's just polite and must be a minefield these days to find a way of not upsetting or offending someone or other with how you refer to them. 🙄

Personally, it wasn't something I stewed over if someone called me a lady or collectively, ladies if in a group of women.

I have never come across anyone ever in the workplace or outside it who was miffed about being referred to as lady or ladies either.

I obviously need to get out more.

Very much. To the point where there is a drifting of names which began as boys' names, became unisex and then end up being almost universally used as girls' names. Hilary and Alison are a couple of examples. There is no drift in the opposite direction funnily enough. People start to use eg James as a girl's name but nobody is deciding to call their son Lucy.

I use gentleman when the male is an older gent, they probably hate it too.

I only watch things on demand / streaming so I assumed it had all ended years ago when he died (except that he didn't 🙈)

Surely people in a group chat know if their friends are female (or what they identify as 🤦‍♀️)

I like being called a lady. Judging by threads I see on here nobody likes being called ANYTHING!

Doesn’t bother me one bit.

I don’t have the energy to get bothered by such things!

I totally get why people dislike "guys", but it's an automatic thing for me - "guys" feels equivalent to "folks".

I think it's about knowing your audience. If I were addressing a group of people my age I wouldn't think anything of using "guys", if it was an all female or all male group that was say age 50+ I'd probably go for ladies or gentlemen.

If someone is referring to me singular, as a woman I don’t mind lady or woman.
My preferred collective noun for a group of me and my (female) friends will always be ladies - IMO it’s just more polite. However, there are circumstances where the use of a collective noun is unnecessary: “what drinks can I get for you?” Is preferable to “what drinks can I get for you ladies?” and that grates, but I don’t know why.

It’s not something that winds me up, tbh. You might want to consider why it winds you up, though…

We have a sales rep from a supplier who visits annually i actively avoid being in the office if I find out he may be visiting. Every bloody time he visits he calls me Young Lady its so patronising and winds me up beyond belief, im 55 years old and in a very senior position in the business

I hate when grown men refer to a woman a lady. Makes them sound like they are 6 years old. I hate being referred to as lady. Girl is almost as bad. And no it is not a compliment to be called a girl 🙄

Maybe it winds her up because it's so bloody patronising

I use ladies when I’m with my friends eg ladies look at this …..

I don’t mind it from a woman I know. From a man, or a woman I don’t know, it grates. Same with “girls”. I’d say it to a group of friends, not strangers and I’d hate it if a man said it. So, it depends!

It’s a weird one, because if a man says it, it’s sets my teeth on edge, like it’s patronising, such as “what are you ladies up to this evening?” I can’t explain it, it’s like they think we are a silly group of grown up girls, off to do something mindless and fluffy.
If women say it, like after Kamala Harris won the VP spot, “wear shoes ladies, there’s glass everywhere”, it seems an inclusive female term.

Tara220

One of the cashiers at a local supermarket who is probably in his 60s+, always says young lady or young man whenever he serves someone no matter what age they are. Never heard anyone complain yet.

He's a nice man, always friendly and used to ask after my cat so it never bothered me being called young lady.

He is preferable to my local Lidl who barely acknowledge you with a grunt sometimes.