Loss of femininity

[Fab Foodie]

Oh, its not meant in any kind of way to be sexist . Ive worked in office environments enough to know that 'girls' love to be called girls, whether they're 18, 30, 40 or 60. Ive always done so, never ever had a hint of a bad response.
It's more informal. Walk into an office full of women. 'Morning girls' with a smile on your face.
Women do the same...'morning boys'...never seen any male respond badly to that either.


If it's done with a smile and a cheery disposition, they always respond well.

Certainly my experience, have never been taken to task over it. In the litigious USA, 'Guys' encompases both boys and girls and seems acceptable to both sexes.
Delivery is important and how well you know the people, a Hellloooo Ladies in the Kenneth Williams stylee also works.

 

[MacB]

to decide if there's a loss of femininity you first need to define femininity, in terms other than, 'you know what I mean', 'when I were a lad/lass' and 'common sense innit'.

Also try to factor in that your personal chronologcal position in society may have an influence and, as Greg put it, views can change with time anyway.

 

[MacB]

Certainly my experience, have never been taken to task over it. In the litigious USA, 'Guys' encompases both boys and girls and seems acceptable to both sexes.
Delivery is important and how well you know the people, a Hellloooo Ladies in the Kenneth Williams stylee also works.

you know don't you that, scared of bucking the flow, rocking the boat, upsetting the applecart...blah de blah...there will be those that just resort to dying a little inside every time you do this?

 

[Bluebell72]

At nearly forty, I say 'I'm having a girls lunch out'.

I wear skirt and dress suits for work, because I feel more comfortable, and as I do a lot of driving, a skirt seems to crease less.
Blouses are wrong on many levels!
I like a straight skirt, pencil skirts are great, and I feel more flattering to my shape.

Having worked all my life in predominantly male environments, I think the kind of man who is going to make a lewd comment is going to make it when you're wearing a boiler suit and visor, or a suit and heels.
Giving it back in spades, and the woman's attitude and demeanour has a part to play.

 

[Crankarm]

At nearly forty, I say 'I'm having a girls lunch out'.

I wear skirt and dress suits for work, because I feel more comfortable, and as I do a lot of driving, a skirt seems to crease less.
Blouses are wrong on many levels!
I like a straight skirt, pencil skirts are great, and I feel more flattering to my shape.

Having worked all my life in predominantly male environments, I think the kind of man who is going to make a lewd comment is going to make it when you're wearing a boiler suit and visor, or a suit and heels.
Giving it back in spades, and the woman's attitude and demeanour has a part to play.

Do you like pink?

 

[Bluebell72]

?

 

[Bluebell72]

Pink is very on trend for men right now.

And Barbie.

And seven year olds.

 

[jack the lad]

There is some research - widely reported in the news quite recently - which showed that when shown photographs of the same woman in a skirt suit and in trouser suit people thought the woman in the skirt was more confident, successful, better paid etc. than the same woman in the trousers.
http://blogs.herts.ac.uk/research/f...ffect-of-Appearance-on-First-Impressions2.pdf

I think the researchers were not expecting that result and it does seem to go against the common view which much of the earlier posts subscribe to that femininity and success at work are mutually exclusive.

I don't know if it is a related phenomenon but when Mrs J got to be the big boss she started to wear a lot more feminine clothes than she ever had before. Her wardrobe went from mainly black to pink and flowers.

 

[keyser soze]

 

[twobiker]

Women at our work have a female version of our clothes to wear, with the choice of trousers or skirts,Managers wear their own clothes and most women prefer trousers /slacks.

 

[rich p]

In the absence of claudine I suppose I'll have to point out myself that a bunch of greying, balding 50-something men calling each other "lads" is rather different from a man calling a female colleague a "girl" in the same post in which he acknowledges that she's suffered unwanted attention from her male colleagues.

(Stands back and waits for "sense of humour failure" posts).

Claudine-lite- how thoughtful, not to say presumptious of you to post on her behalf. Nothing to do with soh more to do with common usage of language as others have since pointed out.

Yup. At 7:30 in the morning on the top of Ditchling Beacon. Fortunately it was a fine clear day, so I had something to make me feel better.

I can't make up my mind if that's another example of your soh or a petty insult. Don't feel obliged to enlighten me.

 

[srw]

Claudine-lite- how thoughtful, not to say presumptious of you to post on her behalf. Nothing to do with soh more to do with common usage of language as others have since pointed out.

As MacB has pointed out common usage of language isn't necessarily to everyone's taste, and can be regressive in terms of social attitudes. TC does that sort of thing much better than I can. And sense of humour is absolutely impossible to judge in front of a computer screen.

Yes, I know that sounds really wanky. You can tell me I'm up myself on the top of Ditchling next week again if you like. I'm a lot less grumpy and can judge other people's reactions much better in person after a good bike ride than on a Friday afternoon when I want to go home.

 

[Sara_H]

There we go, corrected that one for you!

Thanks!

 

[Silver Fox]

At nearly forty, I say 'I'm having a girls lunch out'.

I wear skirt and dress suits for work, because I feel more comfortable, and as I do a lot of driving, a skirt seems to crease less.
Blouses are wrong on many levels!
I like a straight skirt, pencil skirts are great, and I feel more flattering to my shape.

Having worked all my life in predominantly male environments, I think the kind of man who is going to make a lewd comment is going to make it when you're wearing a boiler suit and visor, or a suit and heels.
Giving it back in spades, and the woman's attitude and demeanour has a part to play.

My squeeze is reading this thread with me, she says you're spot on with that assessment.

 

[mcshroom]

Everyone gets called 'marra' round here - sort of solves it.


I wonder if it's a regional thing? Calling adults lads/lasses was always pretty standard when I was living in Yorkshire (and in Derbyshire, men and women would both frequently be called 'Love')

If people referred to men as men/guys/blokes/etc and women as girls, then it would be insulting; as it singles out and belittles the women being referred to, in pretty much the way that male slaves in the USA were often referred to as 'Boy' by the white settlers as a term of belittlement. However, if both are referred to using the a child-specific noun, then I personally can't see the issue.

Of course formal occasions would demand the use of adult terms.