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Ladies, Gentlemen And Guys: The Gender Politics Of Politeness, Sonam Pelden, Elizabeth Reid Boyd, Madelena Grobbelaar, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante, Lucy Hopkins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Are there ladies and gentlemen in the 21st century? Do we need them? In the 20th century, lady became particularly unpopular with second wave feminists, who preferred ‘woman’. Gentleman was seen as similarly politically incorrect: class, race and culture bound. Following previous research on the word lady, we explore here some current evocations and debates around these words. We consider how the more casual, etymologically gendered term ‘guy’ has been utilized for men and women, and how it functions to reflect and obscure gender. While the return of the lady might be considered a consumer fad, a neo-conservative post-feminist backlash, …