Here’s what has caught my ears alot lately. I know that men can clutter our sentences with space fillers, overuse some words (bro).
When men say baby. It’s usually for signicant other, “sweetheart.”
My quesition: I heard alot of ladies address me as “Sweetie/Sweetheart” in the retail/customer service industry.
However I haven’t yet heard them say this to other men while I’m standing around them. Is this just a reserve space filler female use in general or is it for selective men?
MVK
Im curious to know as well because lots of older women call me sweetie or sweetheart lol.
Both the terms Babe/baby and Sweetie/sweetheart when used by males and females are not space fillers. They convey a level of affection, comfort and rapport
(Not Attraction) Space fillers are words like Ok, Uh, So, Ah, Like. They create bridges in sentences and are not necessary to support the sentence.
Example… Like if I was to say to you. (The would like is a space filler) I should just say “If I was to say to you”
Now the English language is much different then human language. ( the word now is a space filler)
Women generally will say something like sweetie in a sentence to convey back to you what they are sensing with the vibe or feeling your emitting.
Remember that women are more emotion driven or feeling driven then men and we use all our senses to communicate, it important for what I want to explain later.
Examples…
Hey sweetie how are you today ?
Pass the sugar sweetie.
Can you hold this for me sweetie ?
Sweetie stop doing that its annoying.
For men younger then ourselves we generally use sweetie and for men older or around the same age we use the word Hun although its not set in stone of course.
The above uses convey that your sending a good vibe. Your a person of good character even when your doing something annoying LOL
Even when used in a sentence like … (even is a space filler)
Look sweetie knock it off or I will slug you. It is still conveying that they are getting a good vibe from you with our other forms of communication but we just dont like what your doing.
Now men are more Visual. They are using babe in the same way as the women are using sweetie to convey back to the person information they are receiving from one of their other senses. Sight.
Men will not call someone they do not visually find appealing or at least acceptable looking to them… babe. Although they may if they find something else about the person appealing. They will not call older women babe they usually call us Mam. They are conveying back to us information we are sending out. I dont know if your familiar with the term mirroring in body language but Its like mirroring back a vibe in another form.
Examples…
Hi babe, how are you today.
Thanks for the coffee babe
Excuse me babe I need to get that.
These terms are not reserved for special people but for a special vibe a person is emitting to one of our senses.
Its not to indicate that they are attracted to you but it does convey a feeling of comfort rapport affection.
In the case of women calling men sweetie. Your a person of good character, your nice pleasant
In the case of men using Babe . You are visually appealing. You have appealing qualities.
Even the word Bro applies to this when used with other men.
Men will call other men around their own age or younger bro but not older men. They will not use the term bro with people they do not feel comfortable with or have a rapport with. They dont have to know each other well they are mirroring back a vibe verbally.
Its something we do subconsciously to convey something not just to fill a space in a sentence. Space fillers have no meaning, purpose or function in communication. We all use them and I tried to give you some examples above so you could see the difference. Just keep in mind grammer and english were not my strong suits in school LOL
Tisha
I noticed that a lot of shop clerks do this in the US. It is not so common in Europe. It seems to be affectionate and a bit motherly. I’d say there is a mild attraction in it but not so decidedly a sexual one, like you want to hug, or pat on the back or knee. You would not do that with someone that repulsed you, but they need not be scorching hot for it either. It is a warm, soft kind of attraction.
Yes, I’ve noticed older motherly type shop clerk ladies use “Sweetie” to me quite a bit. I don’t think its special to me, I suspect they call everyone that.
Thanks for that tisha 
Insightful read, It explains alot as i had always wondered what females were thinking when they call me lovey, sweetie and yes even babes. Would the use of babes from F-M convey the same meaning as the M response since females are more emotionally driven than there M counterparts.
Inregard to the use of Bro amongst males.
I even call older males bro(40+) but only if there is already a good level of rapport going on, I have never really thought about this before but from the way i percieve it seems to be a way of conveying personal acceptance, familiarity, rapport to another M.
“Hey bro how’s it going”
Will usually get me a positive response out of most males even if i don’t know them at all (Unless males are 50+, even then i’ve had afew call me bro back). It seems to be a comfort \ rapport enabler from the get go and can have you go from not knowing somebody to being good friends within a short time span. I also noticed this has alot to do with the way you are conveying this. Voice tone, body lang etc.
“Hey hows it going”
People still give positive responses but there seems to be no sense of rapport building until the conversation has gone on for awhile and you feel more comfortable with each other.
Awesome read Tisha. I never thought about any of these as rapport and mirroring. However now I can definitely see how this communication form would work. I have used some of these terms to soften a criticism of someone I like.
Where I live it is a lot of older black women who will throw in the sweetie or honey into a phrase. It usually conveys a sense of comfort/rapport that Tisha mentions. They will not use it if they are not comfortable with you or if the situation is tense or formal.
I have seem some older white females use it the same way but not as much.