Bertrand: Has anyone said "Oh, but in Yorkshire men call other men "love"" yet?
But they do, they really do (both amazed and amused me the first time I witnessed it having moved to Yorkshire).
As with everything else context is all. So in a shop in Yorkshire, on receiving change, male shopkeeper says to female me "thanks love" - I wouldn't bat an eyelid. He might be sexist, he might not - that single word choice in that context doesn't establish it.
Same scenario in a shop in London - hell yes, I'd assume he was sexist, because "love" wouldn't be part of his everyday vocabulary, it would be an attempt to patronise me because I was a woman.
Professional scenario in Yorkshire where everyone is expected to be on their best "RP" behaviour - if a male manager called me "love", in this context I'd assume he was being sexist.
I now live in the South West - my next door neighbour occasionally greets me with "Alroight, moi lover?" Now that is disturbing (for me, because of my background - he on the other hand genuinely doesn't mean anything by it...) The slightly slimey neighbour opposite on the other hand, who doesn't ever call me that because he's from the SE, but greets me with "'Ello darlin'" - now that's creepy on all levels - because he is a bit creepy and does want into my knickers (friends on the street have confirmed my reading of the situation).
Yes, sometimes words just are regional variations. And sometimes they are creepy. And women have incredibly finely honed twat-dars, developed over decades of having to deal with creeps. Which is why I have no difficulty distinguishing between the Yorkshireman wishing me a cheery good day in his normal dialect, and a Londoner saying the same word and being creepy as fuck.