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.

Yeah it’s health and safety gone mad

I absolutely hate 'folk'! I don't know it's because I'm a Southerner or what but I always think of Hillbilly type people or very elderly people from the middle ages 😂

It's all irrational really isn't it? I take the point that 'lady' can sound twee but I prefer it to other labels for groups of women. Language can be so subsonsciouely loaded, cant it? It's quite fascinating really!

Absolutely agree, OP - it's incredibly patronising. Even worse when women do it.

The only place it's acceptable is Wimbledon, where we have both Ladies' and Gentlemen's Championships!

But men do address groups of men this way. Or else 'gents' or 'chaps'. I don't see a difference.

Much of the time it’s not necessary to use anything

hi ladies, what can I get you?
hi, what can I get you?

ladies feels like a shitty little cage to me. It’s all context though isn’t it. I heard a professional address a homeless man as a gentleman and thought it was really respectful and powerful. These words do have different meanings to woman and man hence the context can grate.

Greetings Fellow Double X Chromosomed Earthlings is the way to go

I grew up in the 80s, and my mum deliberately didn't say 'lady' or encourage us to do so, I think because (a) it implies a particular set of gendered behaviours that doesn't apply to men (being 'ladylike'), and (b) because it also implied to her a sense of social inferiority, i.e. something you might say to or about someone you considered socially superior to you.

Re. PP's point about sports above, I do a sport where my national governing body deliberately shifted from 'ladies' to 'women' when labelling its competitions several years ago, and I think that's a good thing.

It doesn’t bother me. Anything’s better than ‘you guys’ to a mixed sex group of middle-aged plus.

Reminds me of the time I went to Lidl, new young lad on the till. In the space of 5 minutes he had called me Love, dear, and darling. The woman behind me gave me an amused look and we both cracked up. 😆
I (gently) advised him that just one, or better, none of those were necessary. He gives me the side eye nowadays.👀

Lady is merely a polite form of woman. Maybe footballers who are women cannot aspire to that but it’s not wrong to use the term. Who really cares? We are so hung up on being offended these days.

You could use the word person.

@Greysowhat that feels very rude to me. But we're all different I guess. I would think someone couldn't tell my gender if they said "person" 😅

If it's a biggish group I say "let all the people past". But I wouldn't say person for a singular.

How is it rude? Surely it's ruder to refer to women as ladies when a lot of us dislike it so much. And so what if someone can't tell your gender???

They’re women. It’s women’s football. Not ladies football.

Men’s football isn’t called gentlemen’s football. It’s called Men’s football.

Surely you can see why those are different when you say ladies not women’s?

Ladies is fine. Just don't say the word guys. I resent it so much.

I wish "chaps" was gender neutral. Love that one.

@Greysowhat it wouldn't be rude if I was very androgynous, but I am clearly a female so it would bother me if someone "couldn't tell". I am a female so have no issue with lady or woman.
But disliking something / being offended is very individual. Some people don't like lady, some do. Some don't like "guys", some do. So no matter what term I use I'm offending somebody 🤷🏻‍♀️ so I don't think either or is ruder. Depends on the individual surely.

And others of us dislike the other forms of address. Why do your dislikes trump ours ?

At one point at work we got "Guys and Girls", "Folks" and "People".
What's wrong with "Colleagues" or "Co-workers" in that setting??

Anyway, I hate "Women". If you're going to split sexes, I'm Female.
I don't always look womanly or ladylike.😁

Oh, I forgot the low of "Chaps and Chapesses" 🤦🏻‍♀️ now that was bad.

Person offends nobody. Why would you be offended by being referred to as a person?

Sorry, I'm confused. If you are "clearly female" then why would someone not be able to tell what your gender is??

None of this makes sense.

It isn't to do with one dislike trumping another. It is the support of stereotypical terms used to refer to women. And by women too! If people can't bring themselves to say woman then use person. But stop using the outdated ladies and the infantilising girls as terms for grown ass women.

People hate 'ladies', people hate 'girls', people hate 'guys' - it's all ridiculous and petty IMO. As long as I'm not called 'cis' anything or a cervix haver then I don't care.

Couldn’t agree more!

I love girls, at 50 it makes me feel young and is most often used by women IME. Please don't tell me what I'm not allowed to like. Ladies is also the most polite way to referring to women IMO and not stereotypical - that's frankly ridiculous, stop policing other people's language, honestly why do you think you get to decide what is and isn't ok. I hate Ms because i think it's pretentious but I'm not going to tell other people they shouldn't like it or use it or that it's wrong.

Interesting. At a girls' secondary in the mid eighties we were outraged at being addressed as ladies by a male teacher, and left him in no doubt that we considered it sexist.
Ithink the idea that women is somehow rude is deeply misogynistic.