I love the Guardian, I do. But sometimes it does disappear into delicious self-parody. In Scotland the collective working-class term of endearment used to be Hen, that still the case?
What is my crime? Just politely contacting my local bus company to let them know that I don’t like it when their bus drivers use terms such as “love”, “darling” and “babe”. I pointed out that I generally find their drivers friendly and courteous but that when some of them use that language I find it demeaning. I wasn’t angry, I didn’t ask to make a formal complaint, I wasn’t trying to get anyone into trouble, I’m not trying to get anyone fired, I didn’t threaten legal action – I just thought they might like to know how the actions of some of their staff made me feel.
I call all women ‘love’ and men ‘mate’, mainly as I have the worlds’ worst memory for names – but with a broad (well Southerners’ think it is) Yorkshire accent it seems all accept it as fine.
And tbh my misses (Southern girl) calls everyone ‘darling’, or her good lady-friends ‘chick’.
It’s not a term I’d ever use. I leave gender specific terms of endearment for my g/f although I do reserve the use of the word “sweetie” to female pals who’ve done something above and beyond the normal call of duty. Like giving me cake.
What Donk said, it’s actually pretty difficult to argue with any of what she says, though I notice mcboo hasn’t actually bothered to make an argument so it’s just trolling really.
I used to get called ‘love’ by male bus drivers in Leeds though, which always seemed a bit odd.
TBH love seems ok to me, but sweetheart or darling do seem a bit patronising. Dunno why.
Its the epic snobbery implicit in the article, working class folk everywhere talk like this.
Me I’ve taken it to an extreme, where I call the 50yr old SE London geezer sitting opposite me “Suger-Lips” and “Hot-Stuff”. He’s getting used to it after 2yrs but I do get the odd “Shaaaaaaaraaaaaap” in retaliation.
Its the epic snobbery implicit in the article, working class folk everywhere talk like this.
Hmm, shouldn’t the same standards of behaviour apply whatever your social background? Apart from anything else in a customer service role it’s just a bit unprofessional. I’ve worked in call centres before and would never dream of saying love, or even mate.
You are the one bringing class into it, who’s the snob?
Some people are just looking for stuff to offend them.
When the phrases babe, hen, love, mate, fella, me duck, guvnor, sweetheart, darling etc are used by a cabbie/bus driver/person behind a counter in a shop/whomever, it’s generally an indication that they are not a po-faced, miserable git.
Anyone who finds those terms offensive when used in that manner, generally, is.
I quite like being called “Treacle” by the Chip Shop lady! Always used to get “Moi Luvver” when down Bristol way too. I don’t think I’ve ever been offended by it though, it’s nice to be informal.
Also, did anyone else automatically think of “Voice of the Beehive” when reading the thread title? No? Oh, okay…
Last year when visiting Cornwall with my German girlfriend, the bloke behind the counter at a bakers said something along the lines of “hello my lover, what can I get for you then”, to which my girlfriend turned to me in a state of shock and proclaimed she had never met this man before in her life.
I laughed uncontrollably for a very very long time.
Noticeably its all men criticising the woman quoted in the OP. I guess you might feel differently if there was a cultural legacy of men being belittled and discriminated against (and still got paid less for doing the same jobs).
Two things Mcboo – you show your snobbery with the sterotypical reference to “the working class” and you don’t understand the difference between “Hen” which has no sexual connotations and is not degrading and “babe” which is.
TJ I’m as common as muck and proud of it. How’s your po-face this morning?
Didn’t we go through this in another thread? Where you were claiming to be a ‘salt of the earth’ ‘common as muck’ type but to turned out you had a totally normal middle class upbringing?