marla@ssc-vax.UUCP (Marla S Baer) (12/13/83)
. After following this discussion for about two weeks, I decided to put my 2 cents in. (There's no cent sign on this keyboard!! :-) ) I am a WOMAN in my mid twenties. I am an engineer with over two years experience, and a four year college degree. I have lived on my own for over three years. I have changed tires on my car, given it a full tune-up (at least my old car, my new one has electronic ignition and fuel injection!) , and done all general maintenance on it. I have done all types of basic home repair. In general, I feel I am self-sufficient (even if I can't type too well!! :-) ). As a working woman, I am faced with two big disadvantages, one I am young, and I look it, two, I am a woman in a "man's" field. I find being called a "girl" very demeaning. To me it means young female child. Although I admit to being a female, I am NOT a "young child" and I do not like being referrred to as one. An incident happened at work some time ago. One of the other engineers (male) referred to me as "little girl" in a loud voice intending to get a laugh out of his collegues. I answered his question very seriously, but I called him a little boy, in the same volume voice. When he objected, I explained to him that since we were both in the same general age group, if I was a little girl, he must be a little boy. He seemed to shrug it off at the time, but noone here has ever called me a girl again. I am refered to as "woman", "lady", and sometimes "guy" (usually in the collective.). Well, I think I have rambled on enough. Marla S. Baer Boeing Aerospace Seattle, WA (formally NYC, NY) ssc-vax!marla "
marla@ssc-vax.UUCP (Marla S Baer) (12/15/83)
x According to my dictionary, the word girl means, a female child; a young unmarried woman.As to the first definition, I feel I made my point in a previous article. As to the second: In today's society, a woman's marital status is STILL very important, whereas that of a man is not. The term girl, is not appropriate if the woman is married. But, why should anyone in the working environment know, or care what the marital stats of a particular woman is? (I'm not talking of personal conversation/ friends, etc.) In common usage, the term girl is used in two different ways. The first is said between friends, as in I'm going out with the girls (which is usually used by older women, who grew up in a different atmosphere, at least, I've never heard any of my friends refer to themselves as "the girls"), or as used in songs ,etc. I'm not complaining about this usage. It's the second, the one commonly heard in the working environment by men when refering to women, especially those benieth them in the corporate structure. It usually is used to indicate that the person in question is not an equal, is a servant, or is beneith notice. It is used to indicate incompetance (as in too young and inexperienced to know better). Even though most men won't admit to the term being an insuult, or of meaning it that way, the inference is there. If you ask a group of men to describe a girl you will get a completely different answer than if you ask them to describe a woman. The description you will get of a girl is usually that of a young child or teenager. The description you will get of a woman is a mature adult. I'm not saying that the term girl is in itself derogatory, or that the people using it are being insulting intentionally. This is an inherent problem in our language. People have to be reeducated in their speech as times change. This is how language evolves. Language which was unacceptable in times past is now in common usage. And words which were in common usage are now either unused, or totally unacceptable. Marla S. Baer ssc-vax!marla P.S. Please forgive my ramblings/typos. I still haven't figured out this editor completely yet (I wish this system had EDT keypad editing!! :-) ) -MB
phil@amd70.UUCP (12/15/83)
I'd like to express my opinion too, though there is really nothing new
to be said it appears that some things need to be said more than once.
I would not call any female old enough to be out of high school a girl
any more than I would call a male of the same age a boy. (i.e. unless I
wanted to insult them or put them down.)
It is claimed that some women don't mind the word girl. Well, some do.
If the reader has watched "Roots", then remember the first thing they
did to Kunta Kintay (I hope I speled that right) was to call him what
they wanted instead of calling him what he wanted to be known by.
I believe in a very real sense calling a woman a girl is the same thing.
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Phil Ngai (408) 988-7777 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!phil