hok382@houxa.UUCP (12/13/83)
I guess I don't mind whether my friends call me a woman or a girl
or a guy or whatever (when I'm unsure of what to say--and a lot of
times I'm not sure whether to use girl or woman or what--I go with
the circumlocution "people of the female type", which is a nice light
touch, I think). But I do get offended when someone in a meeting
says he'll "get his girl on it" (or even if he's been re-educated
to say "gal"). He's not meaning to give offense and you probably
couldn't even convince him that his attitude is offensive. I guess
that I see the girl/woman issue as a symptom of the deeper problem
and that all the flak about it just distracts from the real
problem, and I hope I have enough sense to figure out fairly
quickly just how annoyed to get at any given instance of the word
"girl".
p. carstensen