porter
Platinum Member
My take on the "girl" thing is that while relatively trivial in itself, it has the potential to be the tip of an iceberg.
It's an example of the casual everyday sexism that is so ubiquitous it's barely even noticeable.
But when it's pointed out to people, some (not all and maybe not even many) will say "Oh I didn't realise, but I do now", and that causes them to examine their perceptions and language a little more.
So the next time they use a word other than "girl", when "girl" might have been expected, it might cause their audience to wonder why they didn't use it, and to examine their own perceptions and language a little more.
This is subtle stuff but "insidious filtering" like this can work for positive ends as I have described. It works jolly well for negative ends, certainly. I admit that I'm often not very subtle, which fault probably does more harm than good.
Absolutely, Madge, I was going to say iceberg as well!
Also, there's a difference between a man calling a woman a "girl" and a woman self-identifying herself with that term.
I see it somewhat differently. I view equality as justice. I would also argue that it's men who have fought, and succeeded, to contain women.
Again, totally agreed.
I think, when talking about "Political Correctness", most in the US who complain about "PC" stuff are just complaining that they don't get to use offensive/outdated terms. It just doesn't seem like an issue to me in that sort of usage- however, when used to discuss a particular smarmy, white-toast manner of speaking, I can understand its negative connotation.