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Calling Us ‘Girls’: When Men Insist On Using Infantilizing Language for Their Convenience

Olivia Love
3 min readApr 5, 2023

A woman will write an entire research-backed article explaining why the term “girls” is infantilizing, and men will still try to justify their language.

Screenshot of author’s article, “Men: Why You Should Call Us ‘Women,’ Not ‘Females’ or ‘Girls’”
Screenshot by author of her recent article

I recently published my article, “Men: Why You Should Call Us Women, Not ‘Females’ or ‘Girls.” Included in this was research, links to news articles, links to definitions of microaggressions, and examples of why their terms “girls” and “females” are systematic microaggressions that demean and degrade women by figuring us as somehow less than our adult male counterparts.

Screenshot by author of a highlighted sentence from her article, reading, “So while movements remain to reclaim derogatory language, if you are not part of the marginalized group, please work on actively being an ally and using less politically-loaded language when speaking to members of a marginalized group.”
Screenshot by author from her latest article

Yet men will (and have) still decide(d) to blithely comment, “but I can use the word ‘girl’ if my intention is good, right?” Or “But what if my woman friend says she is not offended by these words?”

Did you not truly read the article? Is that not the point of how insidious language works to normalize demeaning and degrading connotations for an entire sex of people?

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Olivia Love
Olivia Love

Written by Olivia Love

Mother, wellness advocate, healing practitioner, and writer https://linktr.ee/healinglivmama

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