Hey guys, is this OK? “Guys” may be widely regarded as a gender-neutral way to address people, but many are looking to replace the word with a more inclusive one. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/08/guys-gender-neutral/568231/
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/08/guys-gender-neutral/568231/
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I've been aggressively trying to force myself to only use y'all or you.
ReplyDeleteI genially dislike "guys", precisely because it's an artefact of an older time, when the corollary was "gals" , a sorry little plural noun if ever there was one. I summon with "Hey, people" , the plural pronoun is always "they".
ReplyDeleteMy first manager brought it up when I had him proof read an email I was about to send. I thought 'guys' was neutral too. He offered 'folks', 'team', and other properly neutral terms. I started using 'they' after I got tired of how ugly "(s)he" and "s/he" looked and how ridiculously long "he or she" and "him or her" were.
ReplyDeleteDudes!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to substitute "folks"
ReplyDeleteFolks feels weirder than peeps for some reason. I guess it depends on media.
ReplyDeleteCass Morrison Barack Obama kept trying to deploy "folks" - it was ridiculous. Let's just admit the only use of "Folks" which makes any sense these days is a sorting out of criminal street gangs. The Folks are the rivals of the Peoples cluster of gangs.
ReplyDeleteYeah ... 'folks' never really clicked with me. I ended up with "Hi Everyone".
ReplyDeleteI am told that there was a period of time (3-ish years?) when USA-wide "dudes" was considered proper among young people. I am told that especially on the west coast of the USA that "dudes" is still in common use and is supposedly regionally considered acceptable and proper as gender inclusive.
ReplyDeleteI am told those things, but the society / generations I grew up in, "dude" is male specific (with the exception of the term "Dude Ranch", which was a mostly historical term for an activity that was probably at least 1500 miles away from us.) Except perhaps for the Bill & Ted fans -- and I was close to 30 by the time that came out.
Cass Morrison Saying "peeps" makes me feel like some dad trying to be hip/cool with kiddos... and folks feels 'forced'
ReplyDeleteI think you just have to go with something and make it feel normal. Just like using fisher instead of fisherman.
ReplyDeleteThe non-gender term for one who fishes is angler. The first newspaper for which I worked used that in a headline, because the associate editor (who was married to the editor) insisted we use gender inclusive terms.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall the last time I used the word, "guys" to refer to a group of males and females. I know I used it in elementary school decades ago. I use "everyone" or "all" now.
ReplyDeleteStill using "he" as gender neutral now, although I try not to. There isn't a gender neutral third person, singular pronoun in the English language, yet. I try to avoid using "he", but if I cannot, I just use it. I do know that one of the Scandinavian languages juat started using a gender neutral, singular, third person pronoun recently. We need to invent one in English.
Walter Roberson: I'm in the western US, and 'dudes' is used generically, but only, generally, by a fairly specific group of people, who are by and large dudes in the sense that they're men who are stoners.
ReplyDeleteyoutube.com - Rita Moreno Hey You Guys! Electric Company
ReplyDeleteOn The Electric Company in the '70s, Rita Moreno's "guys" still was taken to mean everyone.
ReplyDeleteBrian Arbenz I was actually thinking of the Electric Company opening when reading this post. It's one of the iconic lines from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteGene Chiu That and, “What about Naomi?”
ReplyDeleteBrian Arbenz I don't recall that one. I do remember the Short Circuits and a few of their songs. I remember Tilt and Punctuation. And the Spiderman skit and a few others.
ReplyDeleteAnd Letterman, the one who was not a late night talk show host.
ReplyDelete