boyiny@ncar.ucar.EDU (Bo-Yin Yang) (05/31/91)
farmerl@handel.cs.colostate.edu (lisa ann farmer) writes: > >NRILEY@BOOTES.UNM.EDU (Natalie Riley Osorio) writes: >> >>[About "woman" and "girl"...] >If I question whether a person is a woman or girl, I will usually use woman. >Generally, if the person is in elementary or middle school I will use girl. >It depends on what context I am using the word also - if I am referring to a >single person, I make a judgement call depending upon what context I knew of >this person,etc. If I am referring for example to females in high school, I >most likely will say girls if referring to a group. The safest term to use >when in doubt is female. >I think it is safer to call someone who doesn't think they are a woman a >woman rather than call someone who believes they are woman a girl. I >still stutter when I use "girl" because I can't decide as quick as I talk >sometimes. Hope this helps. Is the phrase "young lady" unsuitable for describing a female between 17 and 27? Aside from retorts like "what lady?" (from a "young lady" friend of mine) I have not yet gotten any complaints. In English novels they use to call these females "Wenches"..... B.Y.
mara@cmcl2.NYU.EDU (Mara Chibnik) (05/31/91)
In article <1991May30.152447.12160@galois.mit.edu> uunet!mailrus!gatech!mit-eddie!math.mit.edu!boyiny@ncar.ucar.EDU (Bo-Yin Yang) asks: >Is the phrase "young lady" unsuitable for describing a female between 17 >and 27? Aside from retorts like "what lady?" (from a "young lady" friend of >mine) I have not yet gotten any complaints. Yes, I think it is unsuitable. To me, "young lady" connotes a *child*-- i.e. once puberty hits it's not an accurate term. It also has to do with standards of appropriate social behavior, or at least that's the way it has always been used in my family. Also, in my mind's ear I hear admonitions and negative remarks: "Sit still, young lady." "Stop that noise, young lady." Never, "Well done, young lady." I wonder why. Any girl can be called a "young lady" once she's reached school age or thereabouts-- that is, once she spends enough time in public, social settings to be trained in proper behavior. She stops being a young lady about the time she begins to be a young woman. Naturally, I find some of the standards of propriety entirely inappropriate, or at least inappropriate as used to control girls but not boys. >In English novels they use to call these females "Wenches"..... A "wench" always sounds sexual to me. I guess it's my week for reference books: wench [ME wenche, short for wenchel child, fr. OE wencel; akin to OHG winchan to stagger -- more at wink] (13c) 1 a : a young woman : girl b : a female servant 2 : a lewd woman : prostitute ME = Middle English OE = Old English OHG = Old High German (Merriam-Webster-- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate) >B.Y. -- cmcl2!panix!mara Mara Chibnik mara@dorsai.com Life is too important to be taken seriously.
farmerl@handel.CS.ColoState.Edu (lisa ann farmer) (06/03/91)
In article <1991May30.152447.12160@galois.mit.edu> uunet!mailrus!gatech!mit-eddie!math.mit.edu!boyiny@ncar.ucar.EDU (Bo-Yin Yang) writes: >Is the phrase "young lady" unsuitable for describing a female between 17 >and 27? Aside from retorts like "what lady?" (from a "young lady" friend of >mine) I have not yet gotten any complaints. > >B.Y. The reason I don't use "lady" is because for some people this word brings up connotations of upper class white women. It has something to do with the history of the word. I had a discussion about this issue with some Asian-Amer. friends of mine and I didn't see the problem with using the word lady but I realize that there can be a different perspective on it so I don't use "lady" more out of respect for 'non-white' women than any conviction of my own. Lisa farmerl@handel.cs.colostate.edu "If people want to make war they should make a colour war and paint each other's cities up in the night in pinks and greens." Yoko Ono (_Louder than Words_)