I'd think a broad was a dame and a dame was able to deal rather than be broad.

yet, i'm always a broad and not a dame...
...confusion

where do molls go?

A broad, definitely.

I live abroad. Does that count?

A broad in many ways. But if I get a flat tire, I call AAA.

Neither.

I am definitely a broad. I can install my own faucets and everything. I'm handy.

Broad. Or maybe I'm a candy ass dame, who thinks she's a broad. So. Men may see dame, but women see broad.

A broad in many ways. But if I get a flat tire, I call AAA.

Same here.

Blowsy, ballsy broad.

At first I thought I should say broad. But I'm a dame. A tough-as-nails dame, though, with her inner broad hidden just under the lacy black veil of her mysterious hat, a dame that would run off with Bogart when he whistled.

I'm in the same category as amro- why do it yourself when someone else can do it for you?

miko: I wish I were that kind of dame, but I'm not. There's nothing mysterious about me.

I'd kind of like to be a dame or a broad, but I'm really not. Here's an AskMe selection. I don't mind queen, bitch, witch, or she-who-must-be-obeyed. We've used two or three of those around the house.

Broad. Whenever anything breaks arond the house, I'm the one who fixes it, but for some reason my husband still likes to call me his Prissy Princess.

That's why this lady is a tramp.

heh. I had this exact conversation with the bf on Saturday. I said (and he concurred) that I'm a broad.

The real question is, are you a classy dame?

I can get my hands dirty, but I'd rather not. Not sure where that falls.

Speaking of dame, where is she?!

No kidding. This thread is just perfect for her!

I think dame's currently abroad.

So where the hell is dame?

I still hear a whiff of "dumb" accompanying "broad", so I can't see myself using that one. To me a "dame" is a word that seems to convey some male respect -- "she's a real dame" -- perhaps a gal who can take some ribbing and isn't worried about a dirty joke. I can see a "broad" being real, but probably a bit lower class, maybe a little more given to doing stuff that men despise, like running up their credit cards or cleaning up their rooms.

I was just arguing with mom the other week that "gal" is mostly rehabilitated. You have to say "guys" for all men, and "guys" for men and women, but mostly just women say "guys" for groups of women. And if you're forced to say men X and women Y, then you ahve to use "guys" and there's nothing that fits with it better than "gals".

I certainly won't use "girls" for women. (Even if it originally meant a young man ...)

So, it's mostly gals for this guy. But of a dame or a broad, I'd rather have a dame, by my (admittedly sexist) definition.

(I wonder if the cartoonist's take is predicated, in any amount, on the MALE stereotypes of those words. Do women secretly hate the dames that men like, and like the broads for putting up with the men?)

Does anyone remember an old New Yorker cartoon showing a guy in a trenchcoat and beat-up fedora waiting on a bench outside a door marked MATERNITY WARD, with a doctor poking his head out saying "It's a dame!"?

I can't quite identify with either. Love the noir overtones of dame, though.

Yes; if the choice is just dame vs. broad debate, I have to say dame. But there are other terms I prefer -- with stilicho, I agree that I'm perhaps closest to a gal. I used to use 'chick' with some rebellious pride, but I feel too old to be a chick any more.

And gal has absolutely been revived, though it grates on my mom's 70s-feminist ears as well.

Oh, I'm definitely in the pro-gal camp, too. I associate it with my take-no-guff, horse-ridin', snow-skiin' grandma from Wyoming, for whom the term "good ol' gal" was high praise indeed.

"It's a girl."