Whisperer

THERE’S been more rumblings in the GulfWeekly offices over the use of the term ‘girls’ in articles.

The Editor was lambasted recently for using the term ‘girl power’ in a headline about a FinTech group set up to celebrate women in the sector and argued back that ‘girl power’ was coined by a feminist musician and used as a term to empower women. It became even more popular when the Spice Girls used the theme for a musical revolution.

This week Editor Stan got it in the neck from a reader who was upset with the term ‘girls’ being used in last week’s Eating Out review, penned by chief reporter Mai, about Sophie, Phoebe and Olivia Middleton’s vegan chocolate bar and wellness café.

“Sorry to see the GulfWeekly continuing with sexist language infantilising adult women. And written by a female journalist. Doubly disappointing,” stormed reader Vicky Honar.

It must be pointed out that in the interview, Sophie, did use the term herself when explaining how the Raw Candy concept came about: “We were those girls that would always change up our dish at any restaurant … eventually we ended up making our own …”

Mai later also used the term, describing how the ‘girls’ continued selling their culinary creations from home before the sisters dream of a café in Almoayyed Tower materialised, much to the reader’s dismay, who stated: “These are adult women - 32, 34 and 38 years old - so I cannot see the reason why the journalist should refer to them as ‘girls’. I don’t think this is acceptable in 21st Century journalism.”

She linked her comments to two articles, one labelled: ‘stop calling women girls, it’s either patronising or sexually suggestive’ and the other titled ‘grown women are not girls’.

Mai does not agree and believes that it all depends on the context of the conversation or the manner in which a woman is being addressed.

The Editor replied saying that he would use the term ‘boys night out’ if he was describing a group of men of any age off partying the night away in Juffair just the same as ‘girls will be girls’ of any age when they’re enjoying a Friday brunch together.

Is this political correctness gone mad … or should GulfWeekly watch its language?