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Real question - is "ladies" considered offensive these days? Disclaimer: I'm probably older than the average HN'er so I'm used to using woman/lady interchangea

• Jtsummers 10y ago
  In my experience, I've gotten some flack for "lady" directed at an individual woman, but not for "ladies" directed at a group. The former seems to be a regional and agewise thing, not a universal thing. EDIT: Thought about this on my drive home. I think a lot of this has to do with intonation and context. "Hey, lady!" can be taken many ways depending on how you say it. "Alright lady, let's start this meeting." would be an awkward expression, even if 99.99% of the world takes it as totally inoccuous. Versus "ladies" which is easier to use, as in "Alright ladies, let's get started." without any odd implications by tone or inflection.