Is It Wrong to Call Someone "Babe"?

Bus drivers in Brighton and Hove, England, are finding out the answer the hard way: their bosses are forbidding them from referring to passengers as "babe," "love," or "darling" because of complaints.

But critics of the move argued that such terms were part of the region's linguistic heritage, and that people were simply employing traditional Geordie terms of endearments.

So when bus drivers, cabbies and shopkeepers the nation over use words like "luvvie", "darling" or "flower", they are being "affectionate, not patronising", says Tony Thorne, editor of the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang.

"It's only urban sophisticates - usually under the age of 40 - who choose to find them distasteful. It is the 'language hygienists' who choose to see them as discrimination," he says.

"It's folksy - part of a tradition in this country, a momentary affection between strangers. I know people who don't live in Britain any more and when they come back they say how much they like to hear terms of affection, such as the Essex 'babes'."

So, what do you think Neatoramanauts? Is it sexist to call someone "babe"? Link


I have a coworker that calls women coworkers 'baby.' I think he can get away with it since he is an older Iranian and has that foreigner-debonair. I don't think it is particularly professional but no one seems to mind.
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It's common in the South for older women to refer to younger men as Sweetie. It bothered me a little when I was younger. Nor I miss being young enough to be addressed that way.
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In the US, we are told it is sexual harrassment to call someone by those names. Personally, I don't buy it. Unless it is said by a male superior to a younger female,and said in a condescending tone, it is just an endearing name being used. People are too sensitive!!!Lighten up!!!
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I live in GC, and it is not rare that the stranger cashier at the supermarket calls you "my love", "honey", "beauty" (in Spanish, of course). It is normal here to call each other in an affectionate way, even to strangers.

So let's say that that bus driver was trying to hit on me. What's the harm? I will get offended if somebody ask me "to go back to the kitchen, where I belong".

People doesn't know what to complain about.
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This type of address-slang is quite naturally prevalent in the UK and Oz.

Nearly every woman in London called me 'gorgeous or 'love.

My girlfriend's town/region is routinely ribbed for saying to everyone, " 'ello moy luvver!"

-Surprised it's even an issue there.

You'd normally think insane careerist women or feminazis in NYC would be the ones making headlines about it.

-What with several women's supervisors apparently destroying their entire lives forever,

by being people who naturally use body-language & touch people on the elbow while speaking to them as a habit.

Those guys just got their careers straight-up Destroyed for having some kind of European culture like Spain/France/Italy/Portugal/Other as part of their heritage/cultural legacy.
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You have to take things in the spirit intended. My first job out of uni I was a receptionist at an ad company and everybody called me baby. It wasn't because they were leering old perverts, it was because at 21, I was the office baby and younger than everyone else there by a very wide margin.

Now if some builder yells "Hey baby!" when I walk by on the street, I will take a little offence, because they're obviously not doing it with the purest intentions.
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I think it's pretty easy to tell if something is said with malicious or patronizing intent; if it's said in a friendly manner, then it's just a term of endearment... however some people however seem to almost strain themselves in the effort to find things offensive.
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I have no issues with these terms of endearment whatsoever. Dear, sweetheart, love, babe....how on earth can these be perceived as offensive...unless you are just full of yourself.
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Maybe the bus driver is from Newcastle?
I call people love, sweetie, sweetheart, sweets, babe, babes, honey, hunny, love, lovey, pet, petal, dear and dearie all the time IRL and on Twitter and have had no complaints. It's being friendly not patronising x
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