Bus drivers banned from calling female passengers "babe"

Bus drivers in Brighton and Hove, on the south-east coast of England, have been told by their bosses not to call female passengers "babe". There has apparently been just one complaint that the term is sexist. Other regional organisations have banned, or advised against, other terms of endearment, too - Newcastle City Council asked its staff to think very carefully before calling women 'pet' or 'hinny' (which comes from 'honey').

 

Love, duck, dear, chuck, lover, guv, hen - these are mostly traditional and long-standing regional terms of endearment and are used to address people of all ages. I wouldn't necessarily say that "babe" belongs in this group though; it is probably a more modern expression. As Ian Brookes from Collins says in this BBC article, it became popular in the 1990s to describe an attractive woman, thus it is seen as having overtones of sexism.

 

Words out of context are fairly neutral. Most people don't mind a shop assistant or market stall holder calling them 'love' or 'ducks' in a cheery voice, but would probably object if a boss said it. A young woman might not mind an elderly man calling her 'pet', but an older woman probably wouldn't like to be addressed in this way by a young man.

 

Here's the story, and here's a list of regional terms of endearment.

 

Comments

[Jemmy Hope]

Where I live it's still OK for to call a person of the opposite sex 'love', though younger people don't use the word. They call everyone 'mate' - parents to children, husbands to wives. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that schoolkids address their teachers with the honorific.

[John]

A similar scenario exists in parts of the American South, where one can still hear women and men called "Hon, honey, love, sweetie" and so forth by the opposite sex. The terms seem to be used there by both sexes, and also seem more acceptable in rural areas.

Dealing with that clash of cultures becomes difficult when one is managing a business located in both Northern and Southern regions, because here in the North, those terms are taboo in the business world, at least in large corporations.

I do agree that such terms take on a very different negative character when used by a manager to a subordinate.

[Marc Leavit]

Sue:
The terms of address commonly used in the US include: "Hon," "dear," and "sweetie." among others. The problem with their use is often situational. When a young person calls an older person (male or female)"hon'," it is often taken as condescending; when an older person calls a younger person "hon," it is often seen as patronizing. "Sir" and ma'am are the safe default choices.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks for those comments. There seem to be a lot of similarities between UK and US.