"ladies" is old-fashioned and patronizing. say "women" instead. :)
I thought "lady" was analogous to "gentleman," is it really patronizing? I've always used both of those terms when I'm trying to be more polite or formal than usual.
I think people need to be more forgiving with most labels when the conversation happens anonymously without context of that user's preference. Now if you referred to them as "bitches" that would be a problem but I feel like we can be forgiving for "ladies", even if a majority of women do not like it.
Right? At least that's what I think.
I agree that people need to be more forgiving, this is just not worth the effort to worry about it.
The only context I've seen where 'lady' might be offensive is when some men enter a room full of other men and addresses them like "hello ladies".