Diminutives at Work

[zebraman]

Originally posted by ChuckElias

As far as "we don't ref girls or ladies or boys or men. We ref players", I'm sorry, but that guy has a stick up his butt. If you can't be polite and respectful by saying "gentlemen", then something is wrong. Seriously, what was that guy's beef? If you're not comfortable with it, then fine I guess. But "we don't ref girls or ladies or boys or men"? Um, yes we do. What's the point of refusing to recognize that?

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I didn't look, but I think I would have noticed if he had a stick up his butt. :-)

His point was that if it offends someone, try to find another way to do it. He did women's CC ball and had an experience where a coach asked him to not refer to her players as ladies. I think we all can figure out why "boy" might be offensive. I just know that using "players" for a group and the number for an individual shouldn't ever be a problem.

Z