Forum: Author Hangout

Therefore to me, a girl can be of any age or sexual activity, but she's unmarried and thus a dependent and potentially sexually available, while a woman is assumed to be someone's wife and thus perceived as independent equal.

From an American's perspective, that is weird.

A girl is a female adolescent while a woman is an adult female. It's an age/maturity difference.

It's actually inappropriate nowadays to call a woman a girl.

I don't want the police checking on me so I won't try it, but I bet if you Google "porn sexy girl having sex" you'll get a warning about child porn, but if you replace "girl" with "woman" you will get results. I'm sure Google considers girl sex as child porn because girl is an adolescent while woman is an adult.

Nowadays "mature" means 60+, not merely adult, as all those younger girls (women) who grew up posing naked still prefer showing off now.

But in the UK calling her an 'old girl' is affectionate.

Yeah, "That a girl" is used too. No one would say to her, "That a woman."

It's just that gender and pronouns are such a big deal now. It drives me nuts when actresses refer to themselves as actors. Why don't they change the "Best Actress" and "Best Supporting Actress" award names? If all you have are actors, then there should be one Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor winner (2 not 4). But that's the weird people in Hollywood. I guess that's why we're even having this discussion.

"That a girl" is used too.

I've never heard that in the UK. Is it an Americanism?

AJ

Is it an Americanism?

I never knew it, but I guess so. From Merridam-Webster:

the idiom "'at a girl" (often spelled or pronounced as "that a girl" or "attagirl") is commonly used in American English as a casual expression of encouragement, approval, or admiration for a female. It serves as a feminine counterpart to "'at a boy".

I'm familiar with attagirl and attaboy but not the other variants.

AJ

They're both incredibly sexist terms, as "at a boy" implies struggling hard and doing the best you can, while "at a girl" signifies, "there's no sense competing, you're still pretty".

It can be used either way, yet often the difference is all in the tone.

It drives me nuts when actresses refer to themselves as actors. Why don't they change the "Best Actress" and "Best Supporting Actress" award names?

Many of these gendered words have disappeared from English (e.g., baxter for female baker), which makes sense, given we abandoned them for just about everything during the various transitions from Old English to Middle English to Modern English (not the I Melt With You band).

I totally get it, because English is no longer gendered (and hasn't been for a long, long time). That said, if you have separate categories based on gender, abandoning the gendered word seems forced. It's different from, say, 'steward/stewardess' becoming 'flight attendant' because they are the exact same job. Ditto 'firefighter'.

Where it's difficult is when the words are effectively unrelated, e.g., tailor/seamstress (makers of men's clothing and women's clothing, respectively).

Pronouns are a whole other thing.

They do that, because holding a separate "Best Actress" award doesn't allow them to receive the same recognition as "Best Actor" does. A great actor should be rewarded for the acting capabilities, not regulated to a different class entirely.

However, that only applies to the exceptional female actors, as most struggling actresses will accept any recognition they can, not quibbling over the terms.

Thus it has nothing to do with Hollywood, it's all about 'staking their claim' and 'competing with the guys'.

But in the UK calling her an 'old girl' is affectionate.

It's also rather condescending, in a taking-for-granted sort of way.

In the UK you might hear it said about any number of objects, not just females. For example, if a car is struggling up a steep incline, the driver might say, "Come on, old girl. You can make it."

AJ

Historically, when the average life span was 40 years, girls were subject to assigned marriages by their parents, so relying on ancient etymologies isn't fitting in the modern age.

Nowadays, "girl" is anyone who's not "legal", (either 18 or 21) to have sex with).

My story, "Nowhere, like … Home?" was about someone sent back to prehistoric days, where girls became women with their first period (10 to 12 in most cases). I chose more mature women, but girl can be a relative term.

I tend to do that, just so it won't flag each and every unusual name (i.e. not "Tom", "Dick" or "Mary").