He Said, She Said: Is it time we stopped calling girls 'bossy'?

There is a campaign to ban the word bossy.

Celebrities like Beyoncé and Michelle Obama are on board, saying girls are often called bossy when they display leadership traits while boys are praised for being assertive.

To avoid labelling and discouraging girls from reaching for top roles, it's necessary to eliminate the word entirely.

However, 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham strongly disagrees. "I don't think there's anything wrong with the word bossy," he says.

"I have a bossy daughter, a very bossy three-year-old called Pearl. She's really, really bossy. I don't call her bossy, now that I think about it, but I often say to her, 'Listen, don't be a bully to your older brother'."

I think regardless of sex, if you're being a bully, it definitely needs to be pulled into line.

There are so many times that women are associated with negative names. Let's use COVID-19 as an example, and the label 'Karen' — women who complain and ask to see the manager are declared 'Karens'.

Why don't we have a male version?

"We do. A Kyle," says Ben. "We came up with this on the radio, but it's a man who's glass half-empty, who's always angry with the world around them. They're a Kyle."

I'm steering way clear of that one.

What about other words in the workplace — shrill, sensitive, bubbly, pushy, hysterical, mean girl? Women the world over have grown accustomed to these terms. Those terms are not applied to men. Therefore, they are gendered.

Language evolves. Maybe it's time to phase them out?

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