# Is "chick" allowed? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 30, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703 "2020-03-30T21:29:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/21 "2020-03-31T00:13:13Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > The word wasn’t the problem. The attitude was. People like that would have the same attitude saying “that real competent woman” and it would likely be apparent in their intonation. Likely you are right, but whenever I hear chick I think of that chance remark. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/22 "2020-03-31T00:16:32Z")
There may be regional differences, but on the West Coast “dude” is not at all derogatory. It is casual/informal, but not a put down. Chick is more derogatory. > [@madsircool](#): > > Those bikerchicks look like they can kick my ass. This is a good example. This statement works because of the incongruity of a “chick” with something that can kick your ass. “That woman can kick my ass” isn’t amusing by itself, you have to use something that insinuates an opponent who is typically weaker. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/23 "2020-03-31T01:05:27Z")
“Chick” is ok. “Jack Chick” tho, is utterly obscene. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/24 "2020-03-31T01:36:53Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Okay, here’s the context. I started this thread on a device that gets squirrelly about C&P, so I couldn’t link. [Here is the link](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22219517&postcount=27), and the relevant quote: > > I’m not really worried about _belittling_ a convicted murderer. (snip) It’s not her as a person whom you would be disrespecting, but her gender. Which covers a much wider territory. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/25 "2020-03-31T01:43:35Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Disagree with the above. And Dude certainly implies a lack of gravitas. And Rilchiam used it to refer to a Manson follower. So her context was spot on. So, old women are referred to as “chicks” the way old men can be referred to as “dudes”? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/26 "2020-03-31T02:05:14Z")
I associate the word with “pick up chicks,” or as some 1950s word that now has a more misogynistic connotation. Like, by the 80s, I’d expect the character who said it in a movie to be a womanizer. Similar terms are broad and bird from the UK. In the OP’s example, I’d’ve just used woman. Saying chick implied to me that she’s only there for sex appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/27 "2020-03-31T02:17:21Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > It’s not her as a person whom you would be disrespecting, but her gender. Which covers a much wider territory. Sorry, I didn’t get the memo. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/28 "2020-03-31T03:02:00Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Sorry, I didn’t get the memo. That’s fine, standards change over time and people shouldn’t be expected to instantly know everything. The important question is, now that you have heard from multiple people that they consider it dismissive, do you make a change or double down? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/29 "2020-03-31T03:48:48Z")
It depends on whether the recipient expects “gravitas”. If I make a serious post here and a responder addresses me as “Dude”, I take his intent to be demeaning. But if I go to a ball game with several of my buddies, and our group is called “those dudes”, I have no problem at all, and I don’t expect “gentlemen”. . It is pretty easy to tell from the context whether the use of the word has demeaning intent. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/30 "2020-03-31T04:06:49Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > That’s fine, standards change over time and people shouldn’t be expected to instantly know everything. The important question is, now that you have heard from multiple people that they consider it dismissive, do you make a change or double down? No, the memo I didn’t get is the one stating that “chick” is on the level of calling someone the N word, or calling a woman another term starting with C. I didn’t realize “chick” is such a loaded word that I’m disrespecting an entire gender whenever I use it, no matter who I’m nominally describing. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/31 "2020-03-31T04:24:08Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > No, the memo I didn’t get is the one stating that “chick” is on the level of calling someone the N word, or calling a woman another term starting with C. Nobody is saying that as far as I can see. Does it have to be all or nothing with you? There _are_ points between “It isn’t offensive at all” and “the exact same thing as calling someone the N word, or calling a woman another term starting with C”. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/32 "2020-03-31T04:33:05Z")
Fuck the word police comin’ straight from the underground. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/33 "2020-03-31T04:42:49Z")
I seriously don’t really see chick as offensive but I did grow up watching Beavis and Butthead. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/34 "2020-03-31T05:06:51Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > No, the memo I didn’t get is the one stating that “chick” is on the level of calling someone the N word, or calling a woman another term starting with C. I didn’t realize “chick” is such a loaded word that I’m disrespecting an entire gender whenever I use it, no matter who I’m nominally describing. Whoa, I don’t get that vibe from any of the posts here. Certainly not me - I don’t think the N word and “chick” are equivalent, just as I don’t think “dude” and “chick” are equivalent. Please give your fellow posters credit for being able to identify and appreciate linguistic nuance. A lot of us are pretty good at that. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/35 "2020-03-31T05:48:10Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Please give your fellow posters credit for being able to identify and appreciate linguistic nuance. A lot of us are pretty good at that. And in particular, connotations can shift, evolve, or completely change with time and place. By nature, the connotation which words carry reflects context and previous usage. Words (at least content terms) cannot be completely “pure” and “neutral,” because they are always used in some type of context, which imbues them for future use. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/36 "2020-03-31T07:51:13Z")
I think that the term is casually dismissive of women and incredibly outdated. It’s like saying “23 skidoo” it just marks the speaker as decades out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/37 "2020-03-31T07:52:48Z")
“Joe Cool excavates diminutive young hens.” – Graffito seen on U. C. Berkeley campus, circa early 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/38 "2020-03-31T10:42:13Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that the term is casually dismissive of women and incredibly outdated. It’s like saying “23 skidoo” it just marks the speaker as decades out of date. And in the main demographic of the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/39 "2020-03-31T11:38:25Z")
> [@Fleetwood](#): > > And in the main demographic of the Dope. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703/40 "2020-03-31T14:48:03Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Nobody is saying that as far as I can see. Does it have to be all or nothing with you? There _are_ points between “It isn’t offensive at all” and “the exact same thing as calling someone the N word, or calling a woman another term starting with C”. Well, it must be a pretty strong word, since it apparently reverberates throughout an entire gender m even though I only used it to describe one person. And I just turned 50, so I guess I am old-fashioned. ::Rilchiam shuffles off to crochet and watch The 700 Club:: ETA: Oh no, I said “shuffle”. Now I’m ageist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chick-allowed/850703.md?page=3)