I was talking about respect. Calling someone a girl when they are a full grown, capable woman is disrespectful. In the same way calling someone a boy when they are a full grown man is disrespectful. Words are powerful and they indicate whether someone views another person as young, immature or not at their level, or whether they view them as an equal.

And, even though you don’t personally think it’s a problem referring to ‘girls’ in terms of sexuality, it is. When 1 in 3 women report experiencing some type of sexual abuse, many during their childhood, we need to be mindful not to normalize the term ‘girl’ in conjunction with sexuality. The lack of understanding some men have around consent is already destructive enough, we don’t need to verbalize or normalize that it’s okay to be attracted to ‘girls’ or ‘babes’.