Don't call me a girl

That still happens to me occasionally, even though I'm 68 years old.  And my response is always the same:  "Any female who's old enough to vote is not a girl."


I'm as vain as any other human being.  But I cannot, for the life of me, understand why some women express their vanity by allowing themselves, or even preferring, to be labeled as children, rather than admitting that they're no longer Sweet 16.  Imagine what would happen if an employer called a 68-year-old black man a boy--they'd be sued for discrimination faster than you can say "Jim Crow."  How can one infantilizing term be considered an insult, and the other a compliment?