Honest question: what would be the equivalent of "guy" in your opinion when referring to a female in a professional environment (assuming that referring to males as "guys" is acceptable)?
Disclaimer: I'm probably older than the average HN'er so I'm used to using woman/lady interchangeably in casual usage, and now I'm wondering how out of date I am.
EDIT: Thought about this on my drive home. I think a lot of this has to do with intonation and context. "Hey, lady!" can be taken many ways depending on how you say it. "Alright lady, let's start this meeting." would be an awkward expression, even if 99.99% of the world takes it as totally inoccuous. Versus "ladies" which is easier to use, as in "Alright ladies, let's get started." without any odd implications by tone or inflection.
Or just 'you' - "would you all all like to come for lunch today?"
Guy is a general term most times, but I've known a few women that get offended by it because they aren't male.
Dude is also used for both, but a lot of folks don't want to use that in the office. Alternatively, just use person and be safe.
And it crept into my English vocabulary. I think I sound weird when I use it sometimes, but you are the first to point it out :)
There are a few people who get upset over it or intentionally make a vocial issue out of something that isn't. ("Guys" is generally a genderless term ["You guys, take a look at this!"]
Yep. It's the northeastern influence on my mannerisms.
However, I would not say that some people get offended by everything or that they are looking for things to get offended by - not in a professional environment at least. Though I believe it to be reality, I think saying this bit would cause more problems than the word, "guys".
I'd also avoid the term, "guys and gals", but that's mostly because I dislike it, but that's just personal preference.
Hey I'm offended you used the word op. When I was a kid, these kids used to bully me by calling me an Op. Can you refrain was using that word.
This is very much a cultural issue. From my time in Korea, a young person speaking to an older person in a familiar way would've been a major faux pas. On the other hand, the reverse (and consequent potential for put downs on the younger person) seemed quite common (older referring to younger more familiarly than had been earned). Similar experience in Spanish-language communities and cultures. English, particularly American, speaking communities have developed an incredibly tendency towards informality and unearned familiarity in our language. That's not a bad thing, strictly speaking, but it is something to consider.
When you enter into a professional setting, or a setting with people you aren't familiar with, just speak to them in more formal, professional, or polite ways and you are incredibly unlikely to offend someone (outside the occasional, "My father was Mr. Such-and-such, I'm just Bob", or random enlisted Army guy, "Don't call me sir, I work for a living"). It is stress-free if this sort of language is something you practice on a daily basis, it's just how you speak to people.
Yeah, horrible choice of words on my behalf :)
--> "I don't think there is one."
No - the feminine of 'guy' is 'girl'. Point blank.
"The guys/girls are in town this week"
"Those guys/girls are from Facebook"
This is very common and normal language.
I don't think women have the equivalent to "boy." Boy is used by women to adult men to degrade the subject.
Even though we have two similar words which may belittle the person, we have another case where the womens' version is watered down to belittle less.
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That being said "dude" is a pretty weird neutral term is odd in use, and formality.
That's what calling women "girls" is like. It's a pejorative that maintains bias and prevents us from seeing a class of people as active and capable.
Men get tied up and abused as prisoners of war and they're heros. Women get tied up and abused by men, they're victims. Women as "girls" is part of this false socially constructed narrative about female "impotence."
There is rather enormous variation in individuals and, often even for the same individual, context in this, within the US.
There's a point in the language that we use where boys with little power become guys with some power, but there isn't a point where girls with little power become [some word we don't really have outside of regional vernacular].
Our language is not perfect (even mine isn't) - the things we say on an everyday basis show all sorts of things we as a society implicitly believe, often without realising it. That our language reflects our society, and vice versa, is a very old idea, and part of modern feminism and the academia which backs it tries to bring that to the forefront.
Tell me, why do you have such an attachment to that word? Why is it so important to you to refer to women as children?
Sometimes I wish I was southern so I could get away with "y'all." It's such a useful term, but it sounds so wrong coming from my north eastern accent.
"Many of the spectacular car bombings and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda — the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th."
People works in some contexts, but has problems in others.
Note the difference:
> What are you guys up to?
Versus
> What are you people up to?
The first is fine. The second gets you a visit from HR.
EDIT: And to get back to my earlier point, "What are y'all up to?" is friendly and casual. The problem is that I sound as natural as someone's dad trying to rap when I say it.
As in Guys and Dolls. Isn't it a 50s american slang thing?