Rosalie B. wrote:
Dave wrote:

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:16:29 GMT, Rosalie B.
said:

I think that you have to be there to appreciate how condescending it
sounds to call grown women "girls". I don't think you would address a
black man as "boy" would you?

Bad analogy. His use of the term had nothing to do with race. A rational

Sex discrimination and race discrimination are BOTH discrimination.
So the analogy was to discrimination. Not to race discrimination.

person would address whether use of the term "boy" to refer to an adult
male, regardless of his race, is offensive. Problem is that when you

I don't think so. It wouldn't be offensive for me as a senior citizen
to call a younger male (non black) person such as a college age or
high school age male a boy. Depending on when you think a person
becomes an adult.


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.

richforman