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From: loren@tristan.llnl.gov (Loren Petrich)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Girl == woman & man == boy ? (was: Re: Girls, girls, girls)
Message-ID: <67993@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 16 Sep 90 19:52:48 GMT
References: <6290@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> <11927@chaph.usc.edu> <27089@usc.edu>
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
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In article <27089@usc.edu> gazit%cs.duke.edu@usc.edu (Hillel) writes:
>
>	[on grown women being called / calling themselves "girls"...]

>If the language is so un-important, as you said, then why do you care
>so much about it?  Why not to call human females over 18 women (or
>womyn or wimmin or whatever they will want in the Nineties)
>and be done with this silly subject?
>
>Why to debate so much a subject that has so little importance,
>in *your* opinion?

	I think I know what the problem is. "Girl" and "boy" suggest a
familiarity or a close relationship with the person being spoken
about, because they were originally words for children, with which one
often has an intimate relationship. The reason some women don't like
being called "girls" is because that presupposes an intimacy that does
not exist in their minds. Other women don't complain about being
called "girls" in appropriate contexts. I am male, and I would not
complain about being called a "boy" in some appropriate context. I
would not, however, indiscriminately call women "girls". I would call
a grown woman a "girl" only in a situation where I would call a grown
man a "boy".

	Any comments from anyone? When would net.women think it OK to
be called "girls"? When would net.men think it OK to be called "boys"?


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Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster: loren@sunlight.llnl.gov

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