Guin,
Thanks so do I.
Celyn,
I have no idea what you are talking about other than I guess you don’t like the term “chick”.
New info could the term come from the Spanish word “chica” or “chichita”(sp)as someone else told me? Then it wouldn’t be bad to use “chick” would it?
Well, gee, “nigger” comes from the Spanish word for “black,” so does that make that OK to use?
Here’s the real key, from your OP:
This isn’t junior high school. Why are you so obsessed with this word? Is it beyond you to just be polite?
The use of the term “chick” is roughly analogous to the use of the term “nigger” (only without as much sociohistorical baggage and emotional loading).
What I mean by this is, black people will occasionally call each other “nigger” or refer to themselves as “nigger” with no derogatory implications. However, if a non-black calls a black person a “nigger”, this will almost always be interpreted as a derogatory statement, directed not only against the black person in question but against all black people, because this is how it has been used in the past.
Likewise, if a woman calls another woman (or herself) a “chick,” it’s usually okay, but if a man calls a woman a chick it can carry with it an implied insult to all women.
And then, of course, there’s http://www.chick.com…
Well, I don’t think my reply was particularly recondite: feel free to read it, and indeed other posts, again.
Is this just a game called “Wildest Bill asks questions but doesn’t like some of the replies”?
Pl and Tracer,
I never thought that the term “chick” would have the same meaning to girls as the term “nigger” does to blacks. Otherwise I would have not even posed the question.
I thought term “broad”, “hoar”, and other durogatory words would be terms that women women wouldn’t like obviously. I always thought of the term “chick” to be a fun light term for women like babes or sheelas or something like that. Just like them calling “hunks” or “dudes”.
If it is insulting to women, I will try to refrain from using it. But honestly I will miss the term. And I also want to say that me being politically correct is going to be BORING!
I think “chick” is fine when used informally among friends, or when used ironically. I don’t think it’s appropriate for formal or business settings or among strangers or casual acquaintances. I would lump “chick” in with words like “bitch” or “sweetie” that can be funny or endearing in the proper context but patronizing or insulting in others.
I’m really with Porcupine on this one: it’s all about context.
However, out of context, I’m going to have to say I’ve had less of a problem with “chick” than other Southern terms of endearment, which men and women use with equal frequency. Examples: honey, sweetie, darlin’, sugar, etc.
When I first moved to the South, I was also offended by the constant use of “ma’am.” Where I came from, you don’t call anyone under 40 ma’am, unless you’re speaking to your mother and she’s “fussin” atcha ('nuther Southern term). The under 40 crowd, up north, are called “Miss” or “Mrs” (if you know the person is married, otherwise, “Ms.” if you’re not sure.)
Evidently, I’m not used to being treated with respect, so therefore I’m thinking “chick” does not offend me in the slightest. As long as I get to refer to all men as “boys,” which most of you are, BTW.
You know, I am not an uncaring person. I think that any woman who is hit by a guy who professes to love her should get to rip his nuts off and sautee them as he watches. I think that there are words which do cause pain, and I choose not to use them in the event that they do.
But if we are equating calling a woman a “chick” to calling a black person a “nigger,” I think some people need to get a serious grip on themselves and lighten the fuck up.
Would I use the word in casual conversation? Probably not. But this is not because I feel it shows a lack of respect, it’s just that I never thought much of the word. I find it silly, frankly, just as I find it silly to refer to woman as “babe,” “honey,” “sweetie” or other things that some guys will call a waitress with no malice intended when they want a refill on their cup of joe.
To me, there is a difference between “inflamatory” and “silly.” “CHICK” is silly. And anyone who takes offense to the innocuous use of the word is simply uptight and needs some cockmeat badly…
:: fleeing ::
Yer pal,
Satan
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Well, since I said it originally, I’ll respond: I wasn’t equating the two, I was arguing by analogy.
Bill is so desperate for justification to continue using the word, his argument became, “Well, it may have come from this Spanish word.” My response to him was that that was neither necessary nor sufficient justification; lots of English words come from Spanish words, and some of them are still rude.
Quite honestly, my considered opinion is that a man in his thirties or forties who needs to refer to men and women as “chicks and dudes” needs to grow up a little. And really, Satan, I’m less interested in your opinion on the word, than I am in women’s opinions. No offense, but you and I are not women. And the women I know find it a bit demeaning–it’s infantilizing, reducing a woman to some cutesy term of faux-endearment, unless it’s someone you’re close with and who approves of it.
Originally posted by pldennison
:: I’m sorry I just can’t resist it… ::
start the music boys…I don’t want to grow up I want be a Toys R Us kid there is so many exciting toys that I can play with. 
PLdennison,
If you would read my original post, I think you would find I was directing the question to women. What the heck are you doing answering in the first place. That is the whole idea was of this thread to see if women were bothered by this term.
** Bill, ** you had your answer before the thread started. remember, you posted that some one “yelled” at you about it - kinda means it was taken offensively.
A polite person would make notes and act accordingly.
What are you really looking for here? something like: “80% of women take offense, while 20% aren’t bothered” ? and what difference would THAT make? If you’d found that ALL women take offense or ALL women don’t, that may have given you some valuable information. but as it is, you’ve found (surprise) that it DOES offend some, but not others.
But, you already KNEW that SOME women don’t take offense, and that SOME women do. We don’t wear tags on our foreheads identifying us from each other, so your choice is, the same as it always has been.
Call a woman a chick and risk offending some.
Find some other way of referring to women (say, gasp “women”??) that will at least MINIMIZE your risk of offending others.
Go on your way, do things exactly the way you’ve always done, then scratch your head in wonderment when people take offense to you.
Any takers on odds here???
pldennison: Fair enough, but I just feel that using “Nigger” in a conversation such as this is akin to mentioning “Nazis” in other chats! 
Here’s one for you. I was waiting on tables in the past. When I came upon tables of mixed gender, I would usually greet them with a “Hey guys! How are you folks today?”
Would any women here find this offensive?
Well, whilest running food to an older couple (50’s probably) and greeting them with this, the guy got QUITE upset that i called his wife a “guy,” saying “I hate that.”
Now, I always chalked this up to an isolated grumpy gus. I continued greeting mixed gender tables in the same manner. Never had a problem before, and didn’t have one afterwards. I should note that I worked in TGI Friday’s-types of establishments: Not really formal.
Now, this is different than William’s case. In this case, a decent number of women find it offensive, a large portion of women find it just stupid (which is a reflection on you, William), and a few don’t care either way.
In this case, I really think this guy was one of a kind. That said, I will ask:
Does anyone find this offensive?
Yer pal,
Satan
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Wring,
First, when I saw your name on right side of the screen I cringed. Matter of fact, I always do when I see your name cause sometimes I think that you just plain out don’t like me. Which is ok. But other posters that don’t like me are at least fair. Whereas I don’t think you are. So you are never going to agree with anything I say or be fair on whatever we talk about. But after reading your post it seemed logical and not as mean spirited as your usual reply post to me and I appreciate that. Heck you even had little humor at the end of it.
So here is what I decided. I will not use the term “chick” in the workplace unless it is with friends. And I will not use the term “chick”(unless it is just in fun and people would know it was in fun)on other people’s threads. I am kind of at a lost on what to do on my threads because people that are offended by this term probably know that I might use it so they enter my threads at their own risk so to speak. 
But personally I do not think it is a bad or negative term and I think people that are offended by should lighten up. And one more thing being politically correct SUCKS and is not fun.
Oh and one more thing I don’t want you(wring) to go around looking at buff men and saying, “ooohhh, what a hunk(I feel that is durogatory term towards my gender)” ever again.
Satan,
I personally have no problem at all when the term “guys” is used to address a group of men and women. I do it myself, and have never had a problem. Maybe you’re misunderstanding the negative response - I’m picturing you saying enthusiastically “Hi guys! My name is Satan, and I’ll be your server today.”
“Guy” is one of my favorite ways to refer to people of either gender. My former boss, a woman, uses “guy” to mean the kind of person she likes. Frequently, she’d say things like, “She’s a guy!” Kind of like “mensch.” It means, she thinks the woman’s alright. I have addressed female-only groups as “you guys”–occassionally there have been objections as there were no males at the table. I’m a pretty good guy most of the time, I think, and I’m a woman.
As for chick, it all depends on context. I used the word myself a couple of days ago and I didn’t like it. It felt derogatory, so I don’t think I’ll use it again.
Wildest Bill,
How exactly did this get to be about being politically correct? I didn’t see any posts that said using the term “chick” should be against the law, or that people who use the term “chick” shouldn’t be promoted at work.
The people here who said they didn’t like it posted in the first place because you asked for their opinion! I posted and said it didn’t bother me. However, you might want to reconsider drawing the conclusion that the women who didn’t like it are boring or not fun. I’m sure there are plenty of fun and interesting people in this world who also happen to dislike being called a chick.
Delphica aka some chick aka some skirt aka some broad
I don’t mind “chick” (I prefer it to being called a girl), but I find I only use the term in a derogatory/critical manner (“That chick over there just tripped me!”).
However, usage should (as several people have already said) be limited by circumstances. I’ve seen posters that suggest that terms like “chick”, “babe”, “fox”, etc. diminish all women and should be banned, and so on and so forth.
I don’t mind being included in a group of “guys” at all, and I often use it myself. What other options are there for casual address?
It really is a generational thing…people of my parents generation (and older) seem more prone to dislike the term. I’m not a big fan of it myself (although I’m not offended either).
I usually use the term “folks”…as in “Can I get you folks some drinks before you order”?
I don’t mind chicks, but it does sound old fashioned.
Do you snap your fingers and say “Cool, Dadddyo” as well?
(Just kidding)
pldennison wrote:
However, if true it dispenses with folk etymologies that suggest the term is clearly derogatory from its origins.
But as you say, this is insufficient. People put extraordinary significance in the origin to justify or malign the use of a term. But this is perhaps the least meaningful criterion. Many derogatory terms have come from ironic or euphemistic uses of perfectly innocuous terms. Likewise, many innocuous terms are rooted in insults which have lost their force.
Furthermore, as fascinating as origin stories are, they are frequently suspect at best, and often altogether spurious. A good rule of thumb is that the better a story an etymology makes, the less likely it is to be true. Conversely, it will be proportionately harder to convince the believer that the story is not true. People believe what they want to believe, and attempting to disabuse them will get you a reception cold enough to crack the balls off a brass monkey.
What matters more are how the term is intended, and how it is recieved.
Intention – The intention behind using a term is relevant in determining whether or not it is offensive. Obviously, if someone is speaking to be offensive we have a good reason to find offense in it. But it’s not clear that we really want to take just any attempt to offend as offensive. For example, if someone continually calls you a poo-poo-head, you’re probably more likely to feel embarassed on that person’s behalf than actually offended on your own.
On the other hand, if we have reason to believe that the person did not know the term was offensive, or did not use the term in the offensive manner, or did not expect it to be recieved as offensive, then we have a good reason not to treat the use of the term as inoffensive. Yet, it won’t always be possible to dismiss the issue out of hand, especially since people will often take offense first, and having taken offense will not be interested in combing through nuances.
Reception – In a broad sense, the fact that a term is recieved as offensive a good reason to treat it as offensive. What’s troubling with this is that often people are offended by terms who do not have good reasons to be offended by them. Should we treat a term as offensive if we do not feel that the persons offended will have good reasons to be offended?
Sure, the question will be raised of who we are to judge what someone else should or shouldn’t be offended by. But unless we want to accept that we should surrender to the slightest threat of causing offense, something has to count as a sufficient reason to take offense with a term. To insist that the fact that someone is offended is a sufficient reason begs the question.
But for practical reasons, you must pick your battles. Just because you have good reason to believe that the justification behind censoring a term is spurious doesn’t mean it’s worth arguing about, and even in case it’s worth arguing about, it won’t be worth it all the time.
So, the answer to the implicit question, “Could somebody please tell me that I’m not a sexist pig-dog for using the word chick?” is `no.’
