It's weird saying "chick" or "gal"

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I don't know why, but whenever I hear someone calling a female a "chick" or a "gal", it kinda makes me cringe/wonder how people are comfortable saying that. In my definition, calling a woman either one of those things is like trying to hit on them. Does anybody else kind of relate to what I am saying?

Always wondering,

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on February 6, 2018)

Not everyone is comfortable with it. Yes, for many those are terms that are most commonly referred to as a way of hitting on someone but there are people who don't use those terms in that sort of way which can be really frustrating to decipher their motives. It's the same with physical touch. At least from my experience with a former friend who would rub on my legs and arms. Now...I already had a crush on him so I took it that he had some sexual attraction towards me. I was really happy for a while until he told me that he had no feelings form me and that what he did was just a way in how he interacts with friends. This friend had ended up getting in trouble for "harassment" when he did the same with another friend of his. I and some others had to tell him that he couldn't just touch on people like that.

It's the same with women wearing provocative clothing and gets upset when others begin to hit on them. That's another example as to this sort of "misinformation" which is really confusing to a lot of people.

My fiancé has called me things like "chick" and "gal" to be funny mostly. I personally don't mind being called "chick" or "gal" as long as it's by people I know and like. When other people call me those things, I get bothered and find it a little unsettling sometimes, depending on my mood... Unless... it's from some attractive looking goth guy or someone, where that visual stimulates, overrides the fact that the person has referred to me as those terms.

It's the same with being called "hun" and things like "dear". Those are names that I typically expect one of my lovers to say to me, not someone else who I have no affiliation with. I know some people say it as just their way of referring to people without any sort of meaning behind it but that's kind of something some people should really have a better social understanding of what those words mean for a majority of people.

One of my former friend's friend used to call me "hun" which got me puzzled wondering if this guy had an affection for me. I asked him why he calls me hun and he had told me that it was just something he calls people.

When I was younger calling someone female a "chick" was supposed to be sexist and offensive, but then later it got something of a "girl power" thing to it. If you called *yourself* a chick, I mean.


I used to see cute little signs for people's lawns or flower beds that said, "An old crow and a cute chick live here" I actually thought of getting one for my parents.

But "gal" just sounds weird.

While it doesn't bother me when other people use said terms, I personally have an aversion to using them. I have no idea why.

Have an aversion to saying either term. But for different reasons.

Chick is kinda demeaning. Gal, is not, and is fine that way. But "gal" is way too corny and old fashioned to my Boomer ears. My parents generation would use the term when I was growing up, but no one my age, or younger, would ever utter the word. And I associate it with old timey songs like "buffalo gal wont you come out tonight", "me and my gal". In contrast "chick" is very much post WWII, and of my own generation. I don't think of "chick" and "gal" is being alike at all.

"Gal" goes back to at least the 19th century.

"Chick" was sort of a "hip" sort of term around the 30's or 40's. It was used extensively in the 50's through 70's. It was usually used by guys who were impressed (perhaps in a sexist way) by girls. Like: "She's a cute chick, isn't she?" or "Man.....I really dig that chick!"

"Gal" is just a sort of a vernacular term for a "girl." It does have an "old-timey" flavor to it. It might or might not be demeaning.

Omigosh, there's a memory.

A song: "I Dig Chicks". What was I, four or five years old? And it confused the heck out of me, because of course kids are literalminded, and Aspie kids are that times 10E023, and why was this guy singing about shoveling baby birds?

Oh for crying out loud, it's available on YouTube. I won't embed it, I don't want to give offense to anyone by seeming to promote an outmoded term for women, but I will put the link here. In the interest of historical accuracy. He does have a good voice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgdSfYQVJaU

Remember the song "Short Shorts?" A big hit in 1958.

In it, a guy says, "Man.....dig that crazy chick!"

In the 1970s, I wouldn't have minded being called a "fox" by a girl. I was never called a "fox"

"Fox" was used for both sexes. It might be seen as being "demeaning" today.

^^ oh, I missed out on that one! I'll have to see if YouTube has it.

Yeah, I was called Foxy in college. Back then, it felt like a compliment. Being a lot older and all, it'd feel awfully weird today.

i vastly prefer the terms "dame" and "broad".
sometimes if one is flirting, one can use "my! you're a fine little filly"

"Dame" is Forties film noir Humphrey Bogart talk.

Further back , in the twenties, the word was 'frail' (used as a noun). "A frail".

"Minnie the Moocher" despite being a "low down hoochie coocher", was also the "roughest and the toughest frail(oxymoron ?) who had a heart as big as a whale".

"Dame" was used at least as far back as the early 30's; it was used in the gangster films.

another term i heard at someone's house in the 1990's when i was on a short visit was the height of hilariousness for me.

he was a rough uncouth fellow on the lounge with a thick australian accent.....and he said

"i better get back home to me (my) f*ckhole or else she'll be squealing like a stuck pig"
i just lost it and burst into laughter, and he got irritated, but i said i was laughing at the arrangement of glasses on the coffee table and he thought i was a moron so he ignored me.

In Scotland, a "chick" is called a "hen."