Astronuc said:
How does one figure that?
He's trying to save his butt from the wrath of the PF Sisterhood.
Does anyone else think cute means something different than beautiful or pretty? Actually, I think of pretty as the overall term, and cute and beautiful as subsets of that (okay, now you math types should understand that explanation
). To me, cute connotes a different demeanor as well as just being pretty. Someone who is perky or a bit silly or some of those fun things that suggest you know more about their personality beyond just looks. Beautiful I think of as more the calm, proper woman...one you'd admire more as artwork in a museum rather than wanting to hang up on your wall at home. That's probably where Hurkyl gets the distinction between attractiveness...the difference between looking at someone and thinking she's pretty, and looking at someone and thinking not only is she pretty, but she's my type. Or maybe I'm just letting him off the hook too easy.
I perfer to use lady/woman or ladies/women in addressing or reference to females. Girls I would use for perhaps females 16 and under.
I think I usually use women when referring to a group of females, but when directly addressing them, I don't really use anything...it's more, "Can I get
you anything?" or, "Have you all decided what to do after we leave this place?" Whereas, it seems flattering when a guy comes up and asks, "Can I get you ladies anything?" or "Have you ladies decided what to do after we leave here?" (In the opposite situation, I'd use the term "gentlemen" for referring to a group of men if the intent was flattery.) That's the situation where some men come along and use the term "girls," and the context where I don't care much for it, unless they're talking to a group of Girl Scouts. "Ladies" is also a safe bet for young women - older teens or young 20-somethings. They're at an age where they don't want to be thought of as children anymore, so "girls" doesn't seem right, but they feel too young to think of themselves as "women" yet.
Oh, I did think of a situation where I think it would be okay to call adult women "girls." If you're talking to a group of elderly women...in their 70s or older...and refer to them as "girls," they know there's no question at all about their maturity or status as adults at that age, so it's more a form of flattery letting them know they still have a youthful demeanor (of course, "youthful" at that age can mean they act like 40-soemthings)...basically, it compliments them on good health and attitude, that they aren't wasting their retirement years sitting in a rocker and watching soap operas while complaining about their sciatica.
Anyway, that's all good if you're addressing women and know their approximate age when you're talking to them, so can adjust the terms to fit the situation, but it doesn't address the versatility of the term "guys" for a general reference to males of any age. That's what's nice about "guys" is it doesn't distinguish between a 14 yr old and a 90 yr old, so you can use it as an all-inclusive term. Even "gals" doesn't really sound to me as all-inclusive. Let's say I wanted to talk about the participants in some sort of mother-daughter event...is there a collective term that really works to refer to both the girls and women without having to say, "girls and women?" In that case, if I referred only to "girls," you'd think I was talking about the daughters present, and if I referred to "women," that would sound like it was just referring to the mothers present. Does "ladies" work in that situation? Even then, I think of "ladies" as referring to the adults in a group more than the children (when referring to children, I would usually say something like "young ladies" to make a distinction from adults). If you refer to all the "females" present, it sounds way too clinical.
I musta been hammered after a night at Tiki Bar or something.
I don't mind having Arildno along with us, but the one holding that head is a bit creepy. I think he must have slipped something into our drinks.
I don't qualify.
)
