I was talking to my mom on the phone while driving into work when something occurred to me and struck me as odd. We may refer to the “cleaning lady” or even the “nail lady,” but it’s always the “pool man” and “alarm guy.” Why do the women get the lofty and noble title of “lady” but it would sound absurd to mention the “pool lord”?
I ask this somewhat facetiously because I think I know the answer. The problem lies with my geographical region. I’ll explain: in other parts of the country, the male/female pairings are pretty easy. Boys and girls go together, as do men and women, and…guys and gals. We don’t use “gals” in Los Angeles, but we still need something that goes with “guys.” More often than not, people use “guys and girls,” opting for the lower age group (and probably giving plenty of Sociology majors something to write their theses about). “Guys and women” sounds pretty odd, but I think that’s just as off as using “girls” where “gals” rightfully belongs.
So when it comes to naming people who do jobs for others, we get confused by the missing female option. “Cleaning girl” or “cleaning boy” has a distinct air of child labor mixed with a bit of plantation owner. “Woman” may have sounded odd when the person it was describing was more in “gal” range. Somehow “lady” was an alternative that got added to the mix and stuck. That’s my theory at least, based on nothing but my own west-coastian ruminations. But for all I know, in rural Alabama a couple might refer to their “alarm viceroy.”
What about the pool boy?
I would argue that a pool boy or cabana boy is different for a couple of reasons:
1. I expect those males are younger than the ones who travel to people’s homes and regularly service their pools.
2. I think of those jobs as ones at fancier clubs or hotels, therefore encouraging the smidgen of child labor/plantation owner feel I mentioned before. It’s their way of saying to their clientele, “You spent good money to be here, so kick up your feet and snap when you need anything. I’ll send the boy over to freshen your martini.”
Ah, got it! I almost didn’t write this post because I wasn’t sold on “alarm guy.” We say it because we have an alarm system set up by a guy instead of a big company, so I didn’t know if that would work for everyone. I found a much more universal one: cable guy. I feel better now.