When I was doing online dating(and working at Yahoo! Personals) I made it a point to avoid corresponding with any man who said he wanted to meet a nice “lady.” Somehow, “lady” is a word that no one who deals with actual, real live women would ever use in any sentence not involving Ivana Trump or British royalty.
That’s why I find it so irksome that both the All Things Digital and the Valleywag story talk about “lady blog” networks when they discuss BlogHer ad payment cuts.I mean, do you think Owen Thomas and Peter Kafka EVER use the word lady when talking about women they actually like and respect?
Yeah, I recognize this is about building traffic, tone, and snark, but I wish the laddie bloggers would cut it out.
I’ve always hated the word “lady” too, especially in personals ads, it was an instant disqualifer.
Hmm?
MY LADY’S A WILD FLYING DOVE
(Tom Paxton)
Some ladies are foolish
Some ladies are gay
Some ladies are comely
Some live while they may
My lady’s a wild flying dove
My lady is wine …
Agreed, “lady” is only marginally acceptable in romantic poetry. Other than that or with extreme irony (as in, “that stupid lady cut me off!”), I never date anyone that uses the term.