Podcast #147: What Are We Supposed to Call Women?

12 April 30, 2017 by

We begin episode #147 of Drunk Ex-Pastors with a call from a slightly inebriated listener whom Christian inadvertently caused to have a very uncomfortable conversation with his grandmother. We correct the inventor of the gif on how to pronounce gif, and then hear from resident millennial snowflake “Dallas,” who displays sufficient contrition over misdefining butt-rock that we hereby absolve him. We then revisit (hopefully for the last time) the issue of referring to chicks as “girls” — in a nutshell, Jason responds to those who he feels criticized him too harshly, insisting that no, he doesn’t “hate women.” Then in a display of delicious irony, Christian spends the rest of the episode exhibiting the very hate that Jason is accused of. We spend a few moments congratulating ourselves on our grammar, and discuss Ann Coulter’s aborted speech at Berkeley. Christian is biebered by ingredients, while Jason’s bieber has to do with dieting.

Also, “colon-rock” is now a thing. Tell your friends.

12 Comments (click here to leave a comment)

  1. Now, I will never speak for the rest of “woman-kind”, but I will say, at least for me, context is a HUGE deciding factor in when I’d be outraged by being called girl versus woman/lady. I work at a large midwestern public state university, and in the context of my job, being called a ‘girl’ would be more of a putdown, but that’s primarily due to the fact that the upper management of my particular office is men. I don’t want my Vice President calling me a girl because, to me, it demeans my role in my work. Does he mean anything negative about it? Probably not. But it would feel like a put down.

    Now, if you (plural) were to refer to me as a girl when saying, “Hey, that girl over there”, that doesn’t bother me. And I know that for men/guys/penis wielding humans, this probably this feels like a moving target which is why it seems like Jason is saying, “hey, ladies, get your shit together and take a stand”. Language does matter, but much like cussing, context is everything…at least to me. I’m with you guys; I’d rather be called a girl/sheila/chick/what have you over gal. Gal sounds so antiquated. I’d feel like I were in a 40s gangster movie.

  2. I agree, context is huge here. That may even extend to the N-word issue (as in, if I am reading Huck Finn aloud, I feel like I can just read it as written).

  3. I think it’s similar to the formal/informal in other languages. It’s rude to call a woman you don’t know whatever the informal variant of that is in their language. “Girl” is extremely informal.

  4. Absolutely. The usted and the tu version (too lazy to figure out how to put the accent over it, so just imagine it’s there) in Spanish was a legit way of explaining it. I found myself full on nerding out and nodding along to that caller driving (or was it a comment? I’ve been *air quotes* working all morning, and I can’t remember now) talking about the formal/informal variations in other language. I really do think that’s the perfect way to view it.

  5. Agreed. That is a book…and not just a book but what I assume most people would consider literature. I’m not going to read in my head or out loud “N-word Jim”. You should be able to read that out loud without fear of backlash. Now, in the case of repeating someone else, say along the lines of Michael Scott from the Office doing Chris Rock’s stand-up? No. ALL of the nos.

  6. I am a writer of fiction and struggle with when to use «woman» and «girl». As the third
    person narrative, I try to use «woman» as much as possible but some
    times it just seems more fluent to use «girl». The suggestion of
    considering whether one is speaking in the formal or informal sense,
    more obvious in languages like German, was very helpful. Never heard of
    that before. Thanks guys.

  7. I’m still a podcast behind, but here is a video of Mayim Bialik (aka Blossom) explaining why we shouldn’t call women girls.

    I never really thought about it before, definitely made me think about language and how words and ideas contribute to maintaining a statue quo.

    https://youtu.be/qHH3lhYwqcY

  9. Figured you guys probably had … I’m in the middle of last week’s podcast and your conversation made me think of this one.

    Also, I wonder who Cindy Lauper was referring to when she stated girls just wanna have fun. I wonder if women want to have fun as well.

  10. Honestly with how the phrases “Check your privilege” and “white male” are currently so over used in today’s PC world, I’m not entirely sure if that call was just satire.

  11. • In my experience, the church is the last place where you can be honest, especially if you’re in leadership.
    • As soon as you walk in the door, you raise your church shields and the real you is hidden.
    • Because as soon as you confess a fault or an opinion that doesn’t match what is expected of a good Christian, you’re attacked. Not always aggressively, church people are great at passive aggressive attacks.
    • “Check your privilege”? This isn’t a racial slur. This isn’t a pejorative term for women. It’s ‘girls’.
    • With regards to pronouns, I will call you what you want to be called, so long as it isn’t ze or zhe.
    • The maximum limit on spoilers is six weeks.
    • Jason, if you were really a racist misogynist, you would have a much better paying gig with Fox News or Breitbart.
    • By the way, Jeremiah 13: Dick Move, God.
    • Granted, yes, there are some very noxious Republican speakers out there. But if you look at the party’s agenda, it’s equally bad as the spokespeople.
    • Both sides do it!!!!
    • The agenda for the Democratic Party is actually sane. The Republican Party is not.
    • For the record, I don’t want to bomb anyone.
    • Because if you’re a calm, nice rational atheist or agnostic and you, as a person, are fundamentally the same as you were when you professed Christianity… that’s a huge challenge to the fundamentalist who wants to see you as the hostile son of the devil.

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