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"Woman" is the technical term for the female of the species. ;-)
by russell 14y ago
"Woman" is the technical term for the female of the species. ;-)
- stdbrouw 14y agoGal is the analog of guy, nothing demeaning in that.
- EliRivers 14y agoYet some women feel demeaned by being referred to by a corruption of the word "girl", perhaps in the same way many men would take offence if you called them "boy". Not to worry, though; next time I encounter any such complaints, I'll tell them that you said it's not demeaning, so their feeling are an illusion.
- stdbrouw 14y agoIt's context, isn't it? I wouldn't appreciate you calling me "dude" in a business setting, but I wouldn't mind in general. Likewise, I can imagine scenarios in which "gal" would be offensive, but this just isn't one.
- EliRivers 14y agoWould you mind me calling you "boy" in general? How about a cutesy corruption of the word "boy"?
- stdbrouw 14y agoThe etymology of the word is irrelevant to how it's used conversationally.
- EliRivers 14y agoWords carry history. I can think of words that you might use in conversation with various groups without meaning to project any negative overtones whatsoever that would nonetheless be extraordinarily badly received; you could explain to the paramedic as he stems the bleeding that you didn't actually mean to cause offense.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoFWIW, I've got three daughters, all adults now. We've talked about the evolution of the 'casual sex nomitive' and their consensus was that as a group it was ok to call everyone guys like "Hey guys, let's go to the beach!" but in the singular it they preferred the use of 'gal'. Further the use of guy/gal was preferred in casual speech over man/woman. I suspect at some point every word may be pejorative in some way.
- acheron 14y agoWell, I hope you never call anyone "guy" then either, since it's derived from the name of a religious fanatic and (attempted) terrorist.
- EliRivers 14y agoNo, it's derived from an actual name. http://www.behindthename.com/name/guy http://www.behindthename.com/name/guy Just because there was someone famous with a name doesn't mean that name was derived from that famous person. It took on new meaning in the UK after that famous person became famous, but he didn't invent it. While we're here, he wasn't a failed terrorist. He was a failed assassin.
- mooism2 14y agoIt's partly context, but it's also that you don't get to choose whether a particular word in a particular context is offensive to another person.
- stdbrouw 14y agoWhat is socially acceptable is decided by society, not by any particular individual. Mind you, that doesn't prevent us from being more careful around people we know to sensitive to certain forms of address, but in a public forum that's not really possible because you don't know who you're talking to.
- sageikosa 14y agoYes, but we can mock the offense as inferred rather than implied.
- obviouslygreen 14y agoPerhaps some day we will get past this sort of pedantic nonsense and actually read intent rather than injecting irrelevant not-quite-humorous commentary into otherwise useful discussions. But apparently that day is not today.
- 9392732 14y agoQuit being speciesist by making assumptions on the species in question.
- trhtrsh 14y agorussel was simply assuming that the institutionalised speciesism if the airline industry was still in place. Animals fly with the cargo, except some small illiterate/non-communicative cats and dogs.