'Babes' not the ticket on Brighton buses

 
To nobody’s surprise, Fred Goodwin’s knighthood was finally shredded yesterday but on the south coast a different battle over titles was just starting.

In Brighton and Hove, bus drivers have been told not to call passengers ‘babe’, ‘love’ or ‘darling’ since the affectionate terms could been seen as sexist. Since we can presume that the bus drivers aren’t going around called young men by these epithets, it does pass the first hurdle, but is it offensive?

They certainly have the ring of condescension, which is never appreciated. Nor is over familiarity from someone that you really only intended to buy a bus ticket from. ‘Babe’ certainly has a creepy sound to it – having been appropriated in the '60s to mean an (infantilised) hot lady rather than a babe-in-arms, it definitely now has sexual overtones.

But maybe these terms just sound bad to my Northern Irish-born, Scottish-resident ears? What’s acceptable definitely varies around the country. Being called ‘hen’ just doesn’t make my skin crawl the same way – though it’s essentially the same thing. Do we risk losing our local slang with such blanket rules?

I’d suggest not. It’s probably best not to call a woman you don’t know by a term that might offend her – especially whilst you’re working. Perhaps just save those terms for people you’ve met before? And, being from Belfast, I can’t see anything wrong with the good old unisex ‘mate’.

Meanwhile, in what was being painted as a victory for women, L’Oreal has had its ad for Revitalift, starring Rachel Weisz, banned for being misleading. The Advertising Standards Authority said that – the already youthfully stunning – Weisz had been touched up too much in post-production, thus giving a false impression of what the cream can do.

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, the complainant and the co-founder of the Campaign for Body Confidence, considered it a victory, adding, “The beauty and advertising industries need to stop ripping off consumers with dishonest images.”

Well, ok, we certainly don’t want to promote the idea that only one kind of woman – white, super-thin, young – can be beautiful, but since when were we so gullible that we’d believe what we see in beauty ads? Swinson needs to be careful – she might find herself being more patronising to women than those bus drivers down in Brighton.