Human males that play with toys are "boys," regardless of their age, the
size of the toys, or other meanings of the word boy. Human females that
have their own toys are -- "girls," regardless of other meanings of the word
girl. And, lets face it, non-commercial water craft are "toys."

So, if boats bring a bit of joy to your life, then you are really a boy or
girl at heart.

There was a time that I was old and very serious. Now, I am back to being a
boy (well, part of the time.) Life is better now. Even my business is
better now that am not so serious about everything.

Aaron

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
wrote:


Maybe it's not "my place" to have an opinion on this since I'm "not
one," but I've always found this sensitivity on some women's part to
the term "girl," to be silly. Seems to me that there's nothing
pejorative about the word, and that the terms "girl" and "woman" are
not mutually exclusive....in my eyes anyway, an adult female is
(hopefully) both. And speaking on behalf of us guys if I may, I don't
think we would ever take offense at being referred to as "boy," I don't
know, it doesn't bother me and I know I'm a man too. Kind of a mix of
characteristics of both depending on the situation. At the office or
taking care of my kids, I'm pretty much a grown-up and a man, but when
zooming around on my waverunner or screaming my head off at a rock
concert, say, hopefully I'll always be that little kid at heart as they
say.

I once tried to repeat what I thought was an extremely funny joke that
Flip Wilson made about coming back from vacation 'tanned and fit' to a
black colleague. It did not go over well. That reminded me that
while a person who is in a group can make remarks about the group,
that it my not be OK for a person not in the group to make the same
remarks.

So I agree that it is not your place to think that some women are too
sensitive to the term "girl". Sometimes it isn't offensive, and
sometimes it is.

A woman can say she is having lunch with the girls or with her
girlfriends and that's OK. But it isn't OK to say "Oh you girls don't
need to worry about that" plus depending on who says it, it's not
really reassuring either.

My sister's husband was really into sailing, and they had a boat and a
baby. She said that she took a sailing course so that she'd know
whether her husband was being appropriately safe because after they
did a trip down the bay (Annapolis to Solomons), she developed a
crashing tension headache. Her SIL who was traveling with them on a
similar boat said that the same thing had happened to her.

I think for men, the term 'boy' doesn't have the same connotations,
especially once you are past adolescence. And IME it isn't used as
much except for phrases like "boys night out".



grandma Rosalie