Perhaps I Am Not The Right Person To Ask This Given My Track Record Amongst Some Of Our Female Abers But Here Goes, Is It Condescending Or Even Sexist To Address A Female As Love?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984961/Don-t-call-love-Tory-Nicky-Morgan-slams-Labour-star-condescending-jibe-heated-Commons-debate.html

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// Where I live it is a colloquialism to call each other love. Very natural and not condescending and everyone does it. ///

/// I guess it is a regional difference. ///

You are quite right up North especially in Yorkshire it is 'Love', while further south in Derbyshire it is 'Duck', now that's a strange one isn't it.

[Mamyalynne]

I agree it is odd - but funnily enough both 'Love' and 'Duck' represent '0' ,sorry wandered off into cryptic crossword land there.

Circle of life and all that.

[ummmm]

Northamptonians say 'me duck'

[Jackdaw33]

'Petal', 'sunshine', 'precious', 'hinny' (very regional)... I could go on for ever.

[anotheoldgit]

What if one's female boss said, "be a love and check last week's accounts for me"?

[Mamyalynne]

Wouldn't bother me.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - // What if one's female boss said, "be a love and check last week's accounts for me"? //

I can only repeat my assertion that the use of this term is about context.

If an employee has a casual relaxed relationship with his or her male or female boss, then this is not a problem.

If the boss is a leering chauvinist who belittles his female staff at every opportunity, and is saying it with a stupid smirk on his face, then it would not be well received.

[anotheoldgit]

Jackdaw33

/// 'Petal', 'sunshine', 'precious', 'hinny' (very regional)... I could go on for
ever. ///

Gorgeous, Treasure, Sweetie, Beautiful, Me old Beaut,

[anotheoldgit]

/// If the boss is a leering chauvinist who belittles his female staff at every opportunity, and is saying it with a stupid smirk on his face, then it would not be well received. ///

A person such as you describe would not be in his supervisory position for very long.

Since you chose to describe such a Male boss in such terms, all in the interests of sex equality you understand, how would you describe this type of bosses female equivalent?

[ummmm]

What if the boss was also the owner?

[pixie373]

I think anything is fine that's vaguely friendly. I suppose context and tone come into that, but I've never been bothered by it.

[Jackdaw33]

What I liked about the use of sir and madam, was that it was frequently used in the third person, especially in clothes shops.

"Would sir like to see our range of cloths?"

"That hat does suit madam".

This use of the third person to convey exaggerated respect has largely disappeared from English but is retained in other languages, especially Italian, which has special verb forms for this.

[vulcan42]

I think in a lot of cases it's habit, a friend of mine who's a bit pernickety as how she is addressed had a waitress refer to her as love. My friend said please don't call me love and the waitress said Oh sorry love, I'll not do it again.

[pixie373]

I don't like "madam" much. Probably my mum's fault..

[andy-hughes]

AOG - // /// If the boss is a leering chauvinist who belittles his female staff at every opportunity, and is saying it with a stupid smirk on his face, then it would not be well received. ///

A person such as you describe would not be in his supervisory position for very long. //

Have you worked for a large organisation AOG? That observation suggests that you have not - or not for a long time. Sexism remains a major issue for people in the business world - mainly because of the casual way it is used, even by our elected MP's.

//Since you chose to describe such a Male boss in such terms, all in the interests of sex equality you understand, how would you describe this type of bosses female equivalent? //

Exactly the same way.

[Tuvok]

I hate it in shops - you don't know me, so why call me love, dear, darling!!!

[Peter Pedant]

// What if one's female boss said, "be a love and check last week's accounts for me"?//

I would sashay into her office and rip my clothes off ( and then hers )

[Prudie]

If I was called love by a stranger it wouldn't bother me at all but in a business meeting and in this particular case then yes I'd find it deliberately condescending. It really does depend on the circumstances and to echo an earlier post I cannot bear to be called mate by either sex.

[237SJ]

I was in a bar in Singapore and my colleague said to the server "Thank you, you`re an angel" She said "I`m not an angel, I`m a human being" She was livid. She had a strop on with him for the rest of the evening. Must be a cultural thing.

[Jackdaw33]

^^^ after which you would go over the books.