[Football] Why is it insulting to be called ladies

Shropshire Seagull said:

It's a dyke thing ...

A proportion of dykes insist on being women and not ladies - their partners can be ladies or bitches depending on who's got any trousers on at the time.

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Wozza said:

Er... I was merely highlighting (literally) the IRONY of a sportswoman using the term 'girls' - a term many sportswomen object to - in an article literally about how to address sportswomen.

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Brighton Lines said:

'Lades' is a bit condescending. So I can see why they wanted the change. It's their team. Not sure why anyone, who wouldn't normally care, is making an issue of it.

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The Clamp said:

Do they object to it? I do apologise, I got the wrong end of the stick. My mistake.

I honestly didn’t know that.

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Swansman said:

It is fun to be insulted and that is why they've gone for feeling that way. Well, not fun, but being offended is an emotion and in modern, robotic, oversocialised society there arent too many emotions, so we'll do the most with the few we have.

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Dick Knights Mumm said:

players and management team decided they preferred Women.

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ozzygull said:

I think you will find that women and ladies get less upset about the name on the end of thier football team, then men who find out the world doesn't just revolve around them and the things they like.

If you looked at any an old comments section on the BBC about the England's women's team you may or may not be amazed how many comments were from men who had to telling everyone that they were not interrested. Funny I don't see many women commenting on every male sport, puting a comment about how they don't find interesting.

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ozzygull said:

My perpesctive as a female. If someone called me a Lady or a Women I would not be offended by either. Saying that, if someone refered to me as a lady I would think that they see me as a bit posh, which I am not, so would make me smile and find it funny.

I don't see an issue with Fran Kirby refering to her team mates as girls. as I hear male football players refer to their team mates as "the boys".

It is not an issue that I would lose any sleep over and I understand that having a the team name suffixed on the with "women" as it stop people with no interest in women's game losing their rag when they click on an article for Brighton and Hove Albion and god forbid find it's about a women's team, for example.

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Wozza said:

From the Indie, years ago...

While at first look “ladies” might seem like just a polite and respectful term for women, in reality it comes along with all the connotations of ‘ladylike’ behaviour. As goalkeeper Carly Telford, who also plays for England, says “when I think of ‘ladies’ I do think of afternoon tea somewhere”. And she’s right, isn’t she?

According to Collins Dictionary, “If you say that a woman is a lady, you mean that she behaves in a polite, dignified and graceful way.” Ladies arrange flowers and ladies are members of the congregation. By using the word lady, we are giving subconscious instructions about how women should behave. For me, lady suggests not only frailty and the need for protection, but it also avoids any association with bodily functions. Ladies don’t sweat, they don’t bleed, they don’t give birth. You wouldn’t say a strong, independent lady, just as much as you wouldn’t read in a report that some ladies experienced multiple orgasms.

It isn’t seen as feminine to be strong or ladylike to get physical. So why is it the exception to this rule that female athletes are so often referred to as ladies? Is it an attempt to counter the perception of athletic pursuits and the women who engage in them as unfeminine? What it is effectively doing is suggesting how women should behave while they are participating in sport. Deborah Cameron, professor of language and communication at the University of Oxford, agrees “ladies” is a bit patronising and says the switch to women is “emphasising the parallels rather than the differences between the men’s and the women’s game”.

The word woman is a powerful one. It affirms our humanity and dignity, without denying our femaleness. It doesn’t treat the embodiment of being female as a source of shame or weakness. As Chelsea striker Fran Kirby says, “We work so hard every day on the pitch so we feel we should be respected as the athletes and the strong, powerful women that we are.” And these women are inspirational, they are focused, they are resilient and they want to be unburdened by social norms. Sport should be liberating and Chelsea’s decision is helping to create a place where we can escape these constant coded messages about how women should look and behave in society. That is why this is important. That is why I hope the other teams in the Women’s Super League join ranks and see the importance of the language they use.

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Jesus Gul said:

there's a lot of that, yes

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Shropshire Seagull said:

It's a dyke thing ...

A proportion of dykes insist on being women and not ladies - their partners can be ladies or bitches depending on who's got any trousers on at the time.

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Brighton Lines said:

A workmate of mine was once forced to issue a grovelling apology for referring to the women in his office as girls. It was just one complaint. I've always done it and had no comeback.

Now that really is nuts.

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