I am not a girl

I am not a girl. I am a fully grown human female. I hate that even at the WomYYYYYn's centre on campus the coordinator calls all the women 'Girls'. I understand the issue with the word woMen and I realize that some people prefer to be called 'girl' because the etymology of the word is not based on a woman's relationship to a man...but this is not at the root of the coordinator's use of the word 'girl'. I asked her.

Last week I called the nurse practitioner to update him about my kid's appointment with the specialist. He told me he'd get 'one of the girls' to pull his chart and update it. There are no young females working in the office. He was referring to the nurses that do the chart work. I really don't think he'd want me calling him a boy - or that I'm going to take my son and get one of the boys to do his surgery. So he didn't mean any offense but does that make it okay? Those women worked hard for their degrees - maybe didn't go to school as long as he did, but still, they are adults. Calling them girls when there are alternative choices - he could have said 'one of the staff' of 'one of the nurses' or 'someone' or just said 'his chart will be updated'.

Post-structural theory and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis both stress how language shapes our reality. Giving someone a title of respect garners them different treatment than referring to them as something general or derogatory. It's one thing to try and bridge the medical professional/client gap - that's part of the whole reason behind using a nurse practitioner for health care but I don't think it is necessary to call adult women 'girls' in order to take down that wall. If I introduce you to my friend the engineer you will likely speak to him or her differently than if I introduce you to my friend the janitor. My two friends have made different career choices. They both say that as soon as they say what job they have their status changes. The engineer says that respect goes up and the janitor says respect goes down. Of course this is just anecdotal evidence and based on their own perceptions but interesting none the less.

The point is, please don't call me a girl.