Criminal "gentleman"

[xstitcher]

Good Morning All, Has anyone else ever wondered why the newsreaders quite often refer to a man who is involved in some type of criminal offense as a "gentleman" while a woman in the same situation is a woman and never referred to as a lady?

I would say that they definitely are NOT gentlemen.

[Cloverjo]

I've never heard anyone like that referred to as a gentleman. I have noticed that they often refer to 17 or 18 year old males as "men", but females of a similar age are "girls". I'm not sure why.

[xstitcher]

I think the term girls seems to stick with us our entire lives Cloverjo. ...girls night out....lunch with the girls.....hmmmmm

[hc4361]

They often call young men 'youths' and young women as 'girls'. Never heard the gentlemen reference.

[xstitcher]

I just read one on here in connection with a pub brawl where one "gentleman hit etc......."

[2sp_]

My Granny was in service to some very posh, titled families in her youth. She always said that real toffs never called a female a "lady", the correct term is "woman". It was only the middle class snobs that used "lady".

[sandyRoe]

Surely the last gentleman criminal was Raffles and that's going back a bit.

[2sp_]

I find it odd when the media reports a 17 year old "youth" has attacked a 19 year old "boy".

[jno]

I haven't heard them called gentlemen since the days of Raffles either. You must have quaite refained newsreaders in your region!

[pixie373]

I've never heard them called that either. Females are always girls until 18, then women. Males are called boys, then men at 18.

[xstitcher]

Today I got charged for 3 counts of ABH. It was incident that occured just after xmas, in which 3 gentleman started abusing a friend for his hair colour, basically calling him ginger and so forth. My...

Just to show what I am talking about............copied from AB

[Zacs-Master]

I think it's used ironically, as in 'the Honourable MP for East Trumpton' etc