Lady

A lady is a woman who is the counterpart of a lord; or, the counterpart of a gentleman.

More recent usage: sexism

Non-sexist language guidelines forbid its use to refer attributively to the sex of a working person, as in lady lawyer and lady doctor. Many find these to have a condescending nuance not shared by female lawyer or woman doctor (should the sex be relevant at all); compare poetess for a similar problem.

Related Topics:
Non-sexist language - Poetess

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some advocates of non-sexist language recommend not using the word at all, whereas others permit its parallel use in the same circumstances in which a man would be called a gentleman or lord (for example, titling washrooms Men and Ladies would be considered sexist, but using either Men and Women or Ladies and Gentlemen would be acceptable; as is landlady as the parallel of landlord.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the United States, notably among younger feminists of the 1990s and 00s influenced by riot grrl, "lady" has occasionally been reclaimed in a more ironic fashion. For example, Miranda July's Joanie 4 Jackie chain letter videotape project is said to consist of "lady-made movies," a feminist music and video distributor in North Carolina called itself Mr. Lady Records, and chorus of Le Tigre's song "LT Tour Theme" from the album Feminist Sweepstakes (2000) declares itself to be written "for the ladies and the fags."

Related Topics:
Feminists - 1990s - 00s - Riot grrl - Ironic - Miranda July - Joanie 4 Jackie - Chain letter - Videotape - Distributor - North Carolina - Mr. Lady Records - Le Tigre

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~