Ladies and Gentlemen

Dennis Prager discussed the dicotomy between male nature and being a man today. Along the way, Dennis and callers raised the question of female nature and being ladylike as well as the term ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen refers to an aristocratic code for behavior, which Americans had largely but not completely abandon in the Jacksonian era. There are reasons for class distinction to reinforce the presence of aristocratic behavior, and there was the continuing European influence on American society. Nevertheless, Americans had come to understand the proper conduct of their own elite without having to create new words for all of this.

During the 60's, the kind of artificial behavior which had survived the Jacksonians, was condemned in favor of authentic behavior. The reformers of the 60's, who did like to engage in Orwellian re-naming, are the one's responsible for abolishing "ladies and gentlemen". Feminists may have had a grudge against "ladies" because they needed to both destroy the alternate model of aristocratic women's power as well as the boundaries the aristocratic model created between men and women, but it is the conjunction of feminists and the push for informality in society that is responsible here.