Girl power meaning
The "girl power" espoused by the Spice Girls gained currency because it was a novel concept. The fact that it is used as a threat to boys to encourage certain masculinised behaviour – "You can't have a dolly, they're for girls" – shows them that boys are not only different but better. Demanding not to be referred to as a girl confirms that it is an undesirable thing to be, that it is associated with weakness or silliness or irrelevance. While recognising that "girl" can have negative connotations when used to describe a woman, we don't want to compound those connotations by recoiling at its use. Women may spend their twenties and early thirties fighting for respect and recognition and demanding not to be called "girl", only to embrace it later on when "lady" starts sounding like an awful euphemism. Girl is also, surprisingly, a term that women seem to use more to describe themselves, and their friends, the older they get – perhaps irony and affection for the word increase with age. Internationally you are defined as a child until the age of 18, but you are able to do various adult things before that age in this country, and at 19, like Rahming, you're still a teenager, and so arguably still in your girlhood. One of the key objections to the word, of course, is that it is infantilising when used to describe a grown woman – but the age at which a girl is thought to become a woman is highly variable. Is it being said by a man or a woman? What is the age of the female being called a girl? And what is the intention behind the use – is it belittling, affectionate, or purely descriptive? Whether you find the word "girl" offensive or not depends, as ever, on context. The first time the documentary was aired he said: "I am not sure I can live that down – being beaten by a 19-year-old girl." But when the programme was repeated, the word "girl" had been removed. In the documentary, The Queen's Baton Relay, broadcaster Mark Beaumont was seemingly surprised at being floored by judo champion Cynthia Rahming – perhaps unaware that someone becomes a champion at judo by being rather good at it. This week the BBC removed the word from a documentary and was promptly accused of censorship. The question of where we stand on it, and when and to whom we apply it, seems undecided. T here are many offensive words you can use for a female but they are often confined to, ahem, "bitchy" conversations or private emails among football executives.