Reply to calling women "ladies"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Freeman][quote=Anonymous]OP here- wow, I just posted this!

Ladies and gentlemen is completely fine. Female friends who address me and other female friends as "ladies" is totally fine.

I think the problem is that it's often used in situations where I see a tinge of sexism anyway. "Ladies, could you get us some coffee?" kind of things. Or maybe because I am aware of the sexism that more subtly takes place in the workplace I see no need to differentiate between me and the men I work with- yes, we're different because of our genders, but when you start treating me differently when asking me about work stuff I wonder what else is going on.

[/quote]

To be honest, it doesn't sound like the term "ladies" is what you really have the issue with, as much as other actions you've associated with it.[b] If it was instead "Could you get us some coffee?" kinds of things, with no use of the term "ladies", would the situation be any more or less sexist?[/b] There's no need to treat genders differently, but I don't expect all forms of address to be completely gender neutral unless there is some other common title used to refer to a group.(Professor, Director, Doctor, Officer, etc.) If no suitable alternative exists, I don't think addressing a group of women as "Ladies" is inherently sexist. However, if I asked most of the ladies I know to get coffee when I was perfectly capable of getting it myself, they would tell me not only where I could find it, but also where I could shove it afterwards   :shock: [/quote]

NP here. I think the use of "ladies" in this context reinforces the sexism (as in that's what nice ladies would do - get the coffee).
Otherwise, I don't mind the term at all, and I consider myself a feminist. What I do mind is when men socially (i.e. not in a scientific context) say "the females" instead of "the women". I haven't met a man who did that who wasn't either stupid or a jerk.[/quote]

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