Since a lot of women have started to call their female friends “girlfriends”, I have to wonder how women with actual girlfriends have been dealing with this lol

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’m neither a lesbian nor a woman but the word “partner” is pretty universally understood.

        • squiblet@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The point of speaking is to express an idea clearly to listeners. So, since this usage of ‘partner’ to mean the other person in a romantic relationship has become popular, to be specific I say ‘business partner’.

    • catsup@lemmy.oneOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I thought about that one too, but it feels too broad of a term. Partner could be used to refer to a work colleague. And I’d feel really tempted to add “in crime” at the end lol

      • awnery@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        work on a cook line in a restaurant. gain a little trust, might get a partner or several.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “This is my wife” works real well

    For my girlfriend, I mostly just correct people if they’re mistaken. “Oh we’re more than just friends” type statements.

    Also fuck is the platonic use of girlfriend back? Dammit

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    “This person is my lover Karen”

    Just introduce them as your partner. Lesbians are so habitually entrenched in hiding their sexuality.

    I have so many pairs of “friends” come in appliance shopping. Gay men come in, it’s “This is my husband Mike”. Gay women come in and it’s like “This is my friend Paula. She helps me pick out appliances and definitely doesn’t live with me”.

    I don’t pry, because I’m just selling appliances. But it’s pretty obvious.

  • flicker@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “Started?” Here in Tennessee we never stopped calling each other girlfriend.

    But as others said, “Partner.” I use it to talk about my boyfriend (since I’m a well-known demi person locally and the sex of whoever I’m with can be a massive question mark.)

    • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Was gonna say, women calling each other “girlfriend” when they are in fact simply friends and not dating isn’t something new at all.

  • Mom Nom Mom@nom.mom
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    1 year ago

    Since a lot of women have started to call their female friends “girlfriends”

    This isn’t really a new thing, though… Is it? Or did I miss the era where we didn’t use “girlfriend” - at least sometimes - when talking about a female friend?

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I can tell you’re young because 30 years doesn’t seem recent to you.

          When I hear of a 70-year-old woman who’s been doing something for the last 30 years, I read that as a recent cultural change happened.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Since a lot of women have started to call their female friends “girlfriends

    That was the original meaning of the word before it ever had romantic connotations.

    From Wikipedia…

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest meaning of the word “girlfriend”, from 1859 on, was to designate “a female friend; esp. a woman’s close female friend”. In the late 1800s, it took on the meaning of “A female with whom a person has a romantic or sexual relationship”.

  • awnery@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    partner is a brilliant word about to made meaningless, apparently, so, love you all, friends, buddies, girlies, girlfriends, boyfriends, beards, compatriots and fellow travelers, fuck i’'m old I forgot a few dozen thousand.

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