No More Girl Talk

Language has power. Take the word girl vs. the word woman. If a girl has had a period, she’s a woman (right?). No more of this girl talk.

It never used to bother me. Now it eats at me like crazy. I’m sure you can think of many examples. I’ll offer just one. Recently, the final four on Survivor were all referred to as “girls” - by the host, by the castaways, and even by the women themselves.

I can offer one somewhat lame excuse for the use of this word: Males have man, guy, and boy. Females don’t have a “guy” word. This may be why the word girl has taken over... maybe for lack of a better “in between” word in the English language. I find it difficult to refer to my husband Chris as anything other than a man. I feel as though I would be degrading him if I were to refer to him as a guy and especially a boy. So why, for so long did I find it acceptable to be referred to as a girl? Well—now—I firmly believe that it’s not.

To quote Norman Vincent Peale: Change your thoughts and you change your world. The word girl is SO ingrained into our pop culture. Maybe if we referred to teenage girls as teenage women they would take more responsibility for who they are and what they have become. (And maybe if we objected when others (mostly men) referred to us as girls, we would garner more respect.)

Drives me nuts, but I still slip sometimes myself. The fact that the same word can be used to describe me and my four year old step-daughter doesn’t seem possible. The last time I checked we were pretty different.

So, this is what I think: The word girl vs. woman is all about responsibility and respect. I call Chris a man because I respect him. Guy or boy does not do him justice. And it’s weird, but I have a harder time calling the men whom I respect and honor “boys” than I do calling the women I respect and honor “girls”.

Why is that? Share your thoughts.