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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Dividing Line
Message-ID: <299@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Mar-85 20:25:58 EST
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.299
Posted: Mon Mar  4 20:25:58 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 10:50:56 EST
References: <731@decwrl.UUCP> <745@amdcad.UUCP> <627@mhuxt.UUCP> <917@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 38

> >possibility that he actually *is* looking for a girl?
> >    Just where is the dividing line anyway?
> 
> Yeah! Where is the dividing line?
> 
> I have heard several feminists react to use of "girls" by asking if
> everyone was under 13 but I think that is a little young to be a woman.
> 
> My opinion is that girls and boys progress into being women and men at about
> the same time.  I feel it must have something to do with emotional maturity
> (we really don't give  a damn when a person started shaving or menstruating, 
> do we?).  
> 
> Therefore I don't, in general, have any problems with persons 19 or 20 years
> old being called boys or girls.  However it only seems fair to refer to a
> person in the manner that they prefer, and many youngsters don't yet realize
> how much they will learn, so they think that are mature adults.
> 
> What is the answer?
> 
> (maybe it's not that important afterall)
> 
> Peter B

In the best of all possible worlds, it seems clear to me that the time
to stop calling females "girls" is the sams as the time to stop calling
males "boys."  But we don't live in such a world.  Many of the feminists
I know choose to use "after high school" as the divider.

As a practical matter, I use this cutoff for females, but not strictly
for males.  This is because it's easy to take calling an older male
a "boy" as a friendly reference, whereas calling an older female a "girl"
fits so well into the existing sexist pattern that it is too likely to
go unnoticed, thereby reinforcing the pattern.

-- 
Ed Gould		    mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146