: said a Canadian male skiier, according to a story in the Globe & Mail ten days or so ago. The World Championen's women downhiller, an American, had said she wanted to race men. Chicked was what the men didn't want to be, said the story.
While saluting one of the sturdier noun-to-verb moments, I wondered how my students feel about the word chick, which I don't use myself (although since we talked about it, I use it more, but never mind). Here's a typical moment from the talk:
Four women along the front row to my left:
I don't mind. We call each other "chicks".
Two women to my right:
[looking as if they'd just set tongue to prune]
Oh. [shaking head] That's just not right.
The four:
Oh yeah. What else would you call us?
The two:
I don't know [can't think of anything].
On it went. The two women on the right, the youngest and oldest in the room, were sure, the others sure in their own way. It seemed close to home, the way we use this word.
PS: They didn't care for women, certainly not girls. My I call everybody "guys" didn't take. (I'd lost all my cred with gals.)
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Compass
- Gerald Hill
- Gerald Hill's 7th poetry collection, Crooked at the Far End, appeared in 2020, from Radiant Press.
Compass
1 comment:
I'm cool with women calling each other chicks or broads or bitches, even, but when it comes from a male, the little hairs on the back of my neck rise. I'm not surprised you lost all cred suggesting gals.
And ya, you guys, doesn't work, either, despite the fact I use it far too often. I try to use folks or peeps with mixed gender groups.
Women works for me, but I'm not 19.
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