This is not a blog about a certain pig. It is about men calling 'women of a certain age' babe, and the appropriateness (or not) of such an address.
Luckily, I rarely get called it, because it's the kind of expression which makes me wince and say in an embarrassingly matronly way, 'What did you just call me young man?' There tends to be a certain type who call women this, presumably thinking it will flatter them. Believe me, it does not. They tend to be of the flashy, medalliony, hairy chest poking out of black shirt variety.
At least, that is what I thought, until, on a bar shift the other evening, our very soft, and rather well spoken, head barman suddenly said, in response to a plea for help whilst pulling a pint of Becks (I am just not definite enough with the pully thing and it ends up with a whopping great head on it, which customers, understandably, don't like) and he said, 'Yeah, sure Babe'.
Well, his babe elicited a little flutter from within. I thought to myself, in a desperately adolescent sort of a way, 'Hmmm, so, he thinks I'm a bit of a babe, does he?' and I found myself running into the kitchen to tell all the youth that I had become one of Justin's 'babes'. To boast, in fact.
I think I was flattered, rather than insulted, because, being that 'woman of a certain age', I had not expected Justin to think of me as a babe; being one of the only ones not under the age of thirty, not wearing thongs and with a certain sagging quality about me, which they haven't yet achieved.
About Me
- sandra stopford (nee Hartley)
- Spent the last 3 years trying to perfect my books and everytime I look at them, I spy more flaws. So I guess I'm on a hiding to nothing. But hopefully having an 'MA' after my name might get my brain in gear and impel me to write that elusive best seller.
2 comments:
I was rather shocked when she told me, but my mother was thrilled when a London taxi driver propositionned her when she was eighty. He might have been angling for a good tip. My mother politely turned him down, but she was thrilled and still thrilled when she told me. The huge difference between women and men is the expectation on women to be attractive and well groomed. Many more men than women couldn't care less.
It all depends on who it is. Some men are so scrummy that I’ll happily go along with "babe" and "love". The SERIOUSLY dishy can even call me "pet". Too, too shameless!
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