refusing to say 'Lady'

[MyPeriodFeatures]

I have a son who is fast approaching 3. I'm so fed up with hearing the word 'Lady'

'Pay the lady'

'Say thank you to the Lady'

Etc.

It is loaded with so much about what it means to be female. There is no secondary term used to speak about men in common use.

'Pay the geezer/bloke/gent'

'Mind out, let the bloke past'

We never say it do we?!!

Men are Men and don't have a term of address loaded with notions of vulnerability or anything else in common use

I've got a bee in my bonnet about this at the moment. I encourage my son to refer to females as women.

Strikeout fail 😭

Interesting point, Blackcountryman12. I hadn't really thought about it before. I tend to use 'gentleman' only for men who are older than I am, I think, and 'man' for men of any age. That's in no way deliberately chosen, I'm just reflecting on my own language habits. It might be an unconscious politeness/respect thing. As 'lady' does seem that bit less formal than 'gentleman' maybe that's why I do use it in a wider range of contexts.

I'd never say either 'ladies and men' or 'women and gentlemen' because both sound really odd to me. However, I've heard other people use the former but never the latter, so I do see the asymmetry.

You have made some good points, FeminaSum. I agree about "ladies and men" and "women and gentlemen" sounding really odd. I have sometimes seen toilet signs that read "ladies" and "men" instead of "ladies" and "gentlemen/gents" and that never looks right to me.

let it go!

...unless, of course, the speaker is using the divisive, insulting, virtue-signalling fiction that is cis-woman.

I say gentleman e.g. "Let this gentleman pass."