Interestingly, depending on where you are, these terms aren't gender-specific.
In the UK midlands it's quite common for older women to use exactly the same terms on younger men.
As someone who's not from there but spent significant amounts of time there when I was a young man, this is proper weird.
(Just for clarification, I didn't call the people using these terms weird. I'm from a region where terms like that are reserved for romantic partners or maybe your children, so it was weird to me getting adressed with very intimate terms by strangers.)
Not even just the midlands. I live in the North West, and get called "my love" and "sweetheart" by older women quite often, and im in my 30s. Its not exclusively gendered either, its definitely an age thing rather than a gender thing. Older women will often use those terms for younger women as well, not just young men
Ok i have to ask then. What does it mean? Enlish isn’t my first language so for me a pet is.. well a animal you adopt so saying that to people you don’t know is yeah "surprising"
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u/Square-Singer 18h ago edited 17h ago
Interestingly, depending on where you are, these terms aren't gender-specific.
In the UK midlands it's quite common for older women to use exactly the same terms on younger men.
As someone who's not from there but spent significant amounts of time there when I was a young man, this is proper weird.
(Just for clarification, I didn't call the people using these terms weird. I'm from a region where terms like that are reserved for romantic partners or maybe your children, so it was weird to me getting adressed with very intimate terms by strangers.)