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Of course we've all seen it - adult ass men calling themselves "girls". But what about other women?

When I was in my early 20's I'd use girl out of habit but once I got to a certain point, referring to myself as a girl felt weird, and I hate when other people do it to me still because it feels very infantilizing. I might look young but I'm still an adult woman.

I was just wondering, what about you all? Do you still use girl, or if not around what age did you stop? Do you find it odd for women who keep referring to themselves as girls past a certain age?
Of course we've all seen it - adult ass men calling themselves "girls". But what about other women? When I was in my early 20's I'd use girl out of habit but once I got to a certain point, referring to myself as a girl felt weird, and I hate when other people do it to me still because it feels very infantilizing. I might look young but I'm still an adult woman. I was just wondering, what about you all? Do you still use girl, or if not around what age did you stop? Do you find it odd for women who keep referring to themselves as girls past a certain age?

28 comments

[–] ghoul2 Ghost w/the most 3 points Edited

I haven't yet I guess. I'm in my mid 20s and i think of myself as a "woman" and "girl" interchangeably. But girl not as a child, just in like the fun colloquial sense. Like "girl you won't believe what the price of chicken thighs at the store's gone up to." And other boring mundane shit like that. Lol...

I think it really depends on context. Like others have said a "girls night" is kinda ageless, same with "girls' trip". Frankly I'm ok with even old women calling themselves girls. it's when other people do it when it gets weird. Like when it's clearly outsiders trying to fetishize youth etc.

I tend to use "girl" more in a silly sense and "woman" in a serious sense.
[–] friedparata 2 points

in the Russian language, there is word basically equivalent to the male "guys" in English, which used for women and girls of pretty much all ages, but it means "young woman", basically. it's "девушка" (devushka). woman is женщина (zhenschina) and girl (child) is девочка (devochka).

apparently, Zhenschina is used for women who are older than like 40? although it's the basic and most common word for "woman". and calling younger women zhenschina makes them feel "too old" and insulted. devushka is a good replacement, because it avoids the infantisation of devochka and the insult of zhenschina.

I'm not Russian myself, I just learned it online for 2 years so i might be wrong.

I guess English doesn't have the equivalent of that but the word "girl" is used that way a lot.
[–] ghoul2 Ghost w/the most 2 points

I took russian in college haha now i do duolingo and my skills are dying. My professor was in her late 40s and said that, if you address a woman as devushka it's respectful, it's a compliment toward an older woman too. I like the word too. I wish we had something equivalent, I guess "ma'am" is for all ages where I live but in some places "miss" is the correct word... but yeah... it would be convenient to have an equivalent to devushka.
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