Asymmetries in Male/Female Word Pairs: A Decade of Change

Ladies, Gentlemen and Guys: The Gender Politics of Politeness

“…The word lady has its historical roots as a title of nobility, as the female equivalent of a lord as well as of a gentleman, though these have been and remain asymmetrical word pairs (Bebout 1995). As such, the word has traditionally been a marker of social class, linked to dominant, often British-based, upper-class behavior, including being 'of gentle birth' and/or a 'gentlewoman'.…”

“…While caution is due, she argued against trivializing the return of the lady, suggesting instead that the lady's return was a manifestation of both feminist activism and the feminine imaginary. Bebout (1995) summarized the uses of the word lady as (1) a euphemism for woman, and a marker of being an adult female; (2) in contrast to woman, used to trivialize or humor its referent; (3) to imply the absence of sexuality, whereas woman implies its presence; (4) to distinguish from woman by the traditional attributes of so-called gentility and (5) to split feminist and feminine ideals, with feminist ideals being equated with the word woman, and feminine ideals being equated with the word lady (1995). Spender (1980) made the point that, in contrast to the word lord, the word lady has undergone a process of democratic leveling.…”

“…It is also a form of patronage, such as the use of the modifier 'lady doctor' to separate female physicians from their male counterparts and, as such, lower their status (Lakoff 1973;Spender 1980). Bebout (1995) has further suggested that lady has maintained or even increased its tendency to be used euphemistically as a mark of lower job status in the last decades of the 20th century (1995). Being called a lady, in this context, might be seen as a doubtful compensation for lower paid work or conditions.…”

Life Course Staging as Cultural and Subjective Practice: Review, Critique, and Theoretical Possibilities

“…Arias and Hernández's (2007) comparison is restricted to standardized questionnaire material. Only one replication (Bebout, 1995) and two prospective studies (du Bois-Reymond, Plug, te Poel, & Ravesloot, 2001;Meulemann, 2003) inform trend questions. …”

“…While most studies present and compare data for both sexes, only two studies, both at least partially qualitative, work with gendered concepts of life phases/ maturity (Arnett, 1998;Gordan & Lahelma, 2004). Bebout (1984Bebout ( , 1995 replicated in Chinese by Lan, 2005) did study subjects' gender/ maturity appellations but a full discussion of the range of respondent terms was not offered; both Bebout and Lan only marginally engage in operationalizations of maturity, and focus instead on the sex-pairing of the binaries boy/man and girl/woman. One study examines respondents' active partitioning of the life course (Greene, Wheatley, & Aldava, 1992, p. 371), but results do not suggest the authors presented the actual terms respondents used.…”