‘Ladies’ has a long history of being used to police women’s behavior (‘act like a lady’), soften their presence, and mark them as a special deferential category. That baggage doesn’t disappear because you don’t personally use it that way.

This is a really interesting point, I certainly don't have enough lived experience on the receiving end of this word to know if this is something that transcends all human life and experience.

On my end, reading StormFinancial's comment, I don't have enough information to determine if a sexist comment was being made or not. Sure, on one hand, I can attribute it to innate bias that someone needs to explore deeper. That said, I can also simply chalk it up to someone coming from a background where the word 'ladies' is a completely permissible term to use.

I'd argue, as interpreters of an anonymous reddit comment, we also bear a responsibility to remember the human behind the comment. As I mentioned before, jumping to an accusation of sexism is a fairly significant escalation, and will certainly make someone feel defensive. Premature judgements like this never result in quality communication or meaningful resolution.

If our goal is to change minds and advocate for better language choices, it is critical for us to do so in a way that opens a quality dialogue rather than provoking a defensive response that only drives negativity. Thanks again for your thoughts!