Sara Cox admits she ‘hated’ her ‘girl’ label in the 90s and insists ‘I never tried to be like the boys’

Sara Cox admitted she “hated” the “ladette” label she was given in the 1990s.

The Cambridge Dictionary describes a ‘ladette’ as ‘a young woman who drinks heavily, uses coarse language and behaves in a boisterous manner’.

The 49-year-old radio DJ led the British girls, completed by Zoe Ball, Gail Porter, Sarah Cawood, Donna Air, Claire Gorham, Rachel Williams and Jayne Middlemiss.

Ladette culture was in full swing on Channel 4’s The Girlie Show, hosted by Sara, Sarah, Claire and Rachel.

The nightly programme had a magazine format, included interviews and live music, and was described as more daring than other programmes of the time.

However, Elizabeth Day’s podcast How to failSara explained that she was bothered by the ‘ladette’s’ dependence on men.

She told Elizabeth: ‘I hate that term, but I’ve always hated it.

‘But I think I literally hate that collection of letters in which they have improvised the word “ladette”.

“If they had invented a new word that didn’t include the word ‘boy’, then it would be fine.

‘(A word) that meant women spent their own income, had fun, went out with their friends, had independence, were not afraid.

‘I’m not worried about being glamorous or feminine or elegant, but just being themselves and having a laugh and being really good friends to other girls and supporting them.

‘So the whole vibe of “ladette” and the fact that they tried to downplay us, hold us back a little bit with that, was like, “You’re just trying to be like the boys.”

“And we never tried to be like the boys.”

Sara expressed very similar sentiments on This Morning in 2020, and also in 2008, when she said: “Ladette is a word that makes me curl my toes now.”

New episodes of How to Fail with Elizabeth Day fall twice a week.