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feminine equiv of "ladies' man"

Posted by DH on November 17, 2004

I have encountered a subtle form of sex discrimination which the PF'ers, being connoiseurs of words, might find interesting: There is evidently no feminine equivalent of "ladies man," which yields thousands upon thousands of hits; whereas "gentlemen's woman" evokes only a half-dozen

While "coquette," "vamp," and the like suggest only flirting; "siren," "seductress," et al bring to mind also sexual activity.

The closest I have come so far is the slang, "player," which however is de facto applied to men not women. It is as if mankind (or at least the word purveyors) cannot conceive of a woman who dates many men, or plays the field, without her being a slut

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