Third World Skeptical Kid

If a woman called her boyfriend "babe," or "baby" (or a similar term of endearment), would you assume her motive was to make him feel childish or helpless, too?

Question: you're in a critically important meeting with your boss and some very important representatives of whichever industry you happen to be in. Your girlfriend walks in and says "Sorry to interrupt, boys, but I need to talk to my baby real quick!"

You're telling me that you WOULDN'T take your girlfriend aside and explain to her that this was INCREDIBLY badly timed?

Since lack of professionalism would be an issue regardless of gender, it doesn't support the OP's notion that there is any intent by males to make women feel childlike and helpless when terms of endearment are used.

If the point of your analogy is to show that context is crucial, I agree. That's another problem I have with the OP - that it's an oversimplification of the issue.

But why is it unprofessional if it's JUST a term of endearment? SURELY the basis for calling the behavior unprofessional is in fact rooted in the intent of these words to detract from the person's image of power, confidence, and control. You don't think so?

Two things:

1. Burden of proof is not on me here. Burden of proof is on the OP to substantiate the idea that she knows the intent of why men use certain words towards women in certain situations, and that this is indicative of a larger pattern of behavior.

2. There is very little you could write that would sway me to consider these kinds of "feminist" claims as anything other than utter nonsense and jumping at shadows.

1. Yyyyyes, and I submit my question and follow up as the proof you were looking for from the OP. Was that not clear?

2. Some women really do not like being called chicks and girls and it is prevalent in society. That's not jumping at shadows, that's a legit complaint of "we can't get away from this demeaning bullshit". I think it's respectful to acknowledge that perhaps some of us DO use in derisive ways.

Of course the guy wouldn't call his girlfriend "chick" or whatever if she did not like that. The point is, those phrases are hardly used to put down a female. It's a basic synomym. It's not going to change because the majority of females do not care.

Yes. I do expect that from my girlfriend