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Pedants' corner
Original poster

Do you teach your DC to say 'woman' or 'lady'?

68 replies

MrsBumblebee · 09/10/2008 14:01

Ok, not really a problem for me yet as DS is only just 1. However, I've noticed recently that most young children seem to call women 'ladies' but men 'men' (as opposed to 'gentlemen') - e.g. 'Look, there's a man crossing the road', 'Look, there's a lady crossing the road'. This has started to bug me; not only are the words not equivalent, but the feminist in me bridles at the implication that women are somehow deserving of greater respect and politeness than men.

Thought I would do a straw poll to see what others do.

OP posts:
nickytwoooohtimes · 09/10/2008 20:12

I use lady. I also use gentleman for blokes. Fair's fair.

EffiePerine · 09/10/2008 20:12

I also have feminist worries about lady but yes I find myself teaching DS to use it

learned behaviour maybe. But it does sound better coming from a child than 'woman'

I think I use man and gentleman

retiredgoth · 09/10/2008 20:12

I prefer the terms "bird" and "geezer"

verylapsedrunner · 09/10/2008 20:13

Never even thought about it, Lady and Man I think

childrenofthecornsilk · 09/10/2008 20:14

lady
(except those one's from loose women who are bints)

Bensonbluebird · 09/10/2008 20:37

I'd like to use woman/women all the time but end up sometimes saying lady sometimes if I'm refering to someone within their hearing, but it makes me cringe. I agree woman sometimes sounds a bit rude so I try and find some way of avoiding saying 'lady', all a bit tortuous isn't it?

cat64 · 09/10/2008 20:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Olifin · 09/10/2008 21:15

We use lady and gentleman or young lady/young man if said person is not too old.

avacado · 09/10/2008 21:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

NappiesLaGore · 09/10/2008 21:30

id feel a twat saying gentleman. contrived.
i do say lady. and woman. i know lady is twee, thats kind of what i like about it. i love it when kids say twee stuff. sounds funny. and what did i have kids for if not to be amused by things they say??

AbbeyA · 09/10/2008 21:41

Lady always.
Mainly man but sometimes gentleman (probably the latter if elderly).

blueskythinker · 09/10/2008 21:46

Lady & man.

We were in a shop waiting for something a few weeks ago when a transvestite came and sat next to me & my 3 yr old DD and made small talk with us. My DD was quite subdued at the time, but afterwards, as soon as we had left my DD said 'that was a funny lady Mummy! She had a really deep voice'

What can you say?

Dottoressa · 09/10/2008 21:49

They are ladies and gentlemen in our house!

PavlovtheWitchesCat · 09/10/2008 21:49

lady

singingtree · 09/10/2008 21:50

Woman. I have to make a bit of an effort to do it though tbh

WinkyWinkola · 09/10/2008 21:52

Woman mostly. Although if I'm referring to a more mature woman, I'll say lady because I think she'd probably prefer to be known as a lady. But I really don't think about it that much.

Woman is a much nicer word than lady, I think.

MrsBates · 09/10/2008 21:56

Both. Unless I am indicating the wife of a Lord, as we do all the time here in east London.

What do you call drag queens? I say she when in full slap but my daughter asked why I say she when it's clearly a bloke.

campion · 10/10/2008 17:22

People on radio phone-ins have a tendency to state ' the previous gentleman / lady said...' to which DH always exclaims ' how do you know if he's a gentleman?'. I think people think it's somehow more polite not to use man and woman but I don't know why they think that.
Perhaps some misguided ( IMO) adult dinned it into them as children.

Probably at the same time as they were told always to say ' I' not 'me' in a sentence!

Othersideofthechannel · 10/10/2008 17:27

This has been bugging me for a while.

I prefer woman but know that some people would be offended by that so I will say 'let the lady past' to DC.

NotQuiteCockney · 10/10/2008 17:31

I hate hate hate lady. Ladies look like this. No big pointy hat -> no lady.

Of course, this causes a bit of a problem - I think DS2 has called 'lady fingers' 'woman fingers'.

SqueakyPop · 10/10/2008 17:45

lady and gentleman

berolina · 10/10/2008 17:59

'Woman' generally - 'look, next to that woman over there'. 'Lady' in interactions with the person, e.g. 'ds1, could you give the lady the money, please?' (in a café), or 'let the lady past'. Not that it directly matters over here, being in Germany. I'm not entirely happy with 'lady' and dislike the fact that 'woman' in my second context ('give the woman the money') somehow sounds so blunt and harsh - but it does.

berolina · 10/10/2008 18:00

And I usually use 'man' but, for some reason, used 'gentleman' just today - and wondered why I'd used it!

hatwoman · 10/10/2008 20:34

I was trying to find an answer - as I know I use both - and then I read berolina's post and realised my answer is the same. I much prefer "woman" but will use lady in those sort of interaction with strangers type situations

DforDiva · 10/10/2008 20:41

i always say lady to older people over 34-40, woman if they younger,
man is always master, dd calls binmaster, windowmaster,and even postman master

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