Sweetie in the Workplace

I hate being called sweetie. By anyone. Ever. Even my boyfriend doesn’t really call me that. I find it to be condescending in any context, even when used by another female. A girl I used to work with, who was just 2 years my senior used to use the term, and even at one point called me a baby (because of my age). I politely informed her that I was neither a baby nor her sweetie.

But what’s even more patronizing is being called sweetie by a man. And worse, during a fight. Even worse is in the workplace. But what takes the cake is a man using the term during a fight in the workplace.

As was apparently the case during Celebrity Apprentice. Star Jones allegedly called Meatloaf out on the term “Sweetie,” and the implications the word carries. I’ll fully admit this is all hearsay, as I heard the story and the clip on the radio yesterday morning, but the point is worth mentioning. Calling a woman by any term of endearment in the workplace (or really anywhere) is belittling. It’s an act of superiority. It’s a term notoriously used to infer innocence, youth, and, essentially, inexperience. And it’s entirely inappropriate.

Give me ONE pet name people call men on a regular basis. Men they’ve never met before. Men they work with, men they work for, men who work for them. It’s always “sir” or it’s nothing at all. There is no male equivalent of “sweetie.”

Trump apparently says to Star that she must have been called worse things than “sweetie” over the years. Most people have. That doesn’t make the word any less demeaning. It just makes Donald Trump that much more of a patronizing misogynistic…you finish that one.

And Meatloaf? You lost my respect too.

I never thought I’d agree with Star Jones. But sweetie, you’re damn right.