girl, or woman?
Earlier this week, i started to think or say "this girl i work with..." and wondered why i still called her girl, rather than woman. So then i started to think thru some people and how i would refer to them - girl, guy, woman, man, kid, colleague, co-worker, friend, lover, mother, stranger. All of them labels that mean one thing or another, either coming from the person or my own impression of them.
At what point does that person go from being called a girl to a woman? Is it really her that changes, or me, or my impression of her? At this point, i don't feel all that comfortable with people calling me man. Try it on for size, see how well it fits - "I ran into a man i once knew." It does have something to do with age, whether real or perceived. There are people that i work with that i wouldn't refer to as man since they don't seem to display any manly qualities, despite their age.
Ah ha, maybe that's it. Maybe i'm still a guy and she's still a gal because we don't yet feel like we've grown up, or want to feel like it.
At what point does that person go from being called a girl to a woman? Is it really her that changes, or me, or my impression of her? At this point, i don't feel all that comfortable with people calling me man. Try it on for size, see how well it fits - "I ran into a man i once knew." It does have something to do with age, whether real or perceived. There are people that i work with that i wouldn't refer to as man since they don't seem to display any manly qualities, despite their age.
Ah ha, maybe that's it. Maybe i'm still a guy and she's still a gal because we don't yet feel like we've grown up, or want to feel like it.
I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.
--Jack Kerouac
posted by joe @ 10:33 PM
0 comments
