Is there a problem with saying “you guys”? I use it all the time (even if there is a female in the group). I never really saw a problem with it until one of my friends (a semi SJW girl) brought it up.
What do you guys (lol) think? Is there a problem with this? If so, what alternative phrases can you even use without sounding like a weirdo?
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Reconsider your friend group.
This is the correct answer.
Who is this loser handing out monkey shit?
Are you fucking serious
I use it all the time too, but have in the past few years become more cognizant of it when referring to a group that isn’t all male in a work setting / context. Stupid in my opinion, but not a hard change to make to avoid inadvertently causing an issue with someone who may be sensitive to it
You guys and bro are both gender neutral terms
If I had a dollar for every gender, I would have $2.
And a bunch of counterfeits.
that's just silly mate. 'Guys' seems pretty gender neutral when speaking in a group. Uniquely English has a plural 'you' and no singular 'you', hence there's no real way to say "you multiple people" other than the southerner "y'all" so it's a gap in the language.
Not your fault, it's a flaw in the language.
Instead I suggest you use "hey fuckers" whenever referring to multiple people. As in "hey fuckers, you ready to go to lunch?" or "Good morning fuckers," or "I'm so happy you fuckers could make it to my birthday."
And tell your SJW colleague to go pound sand.
I think u switched these two up
Not to my understanding. Hence 'you are' and not 'you is'. That's the glitch in the English language. 'You' is always plural. Hence the southerner "y'all" is grammatically incorrect, but in reality English needs such a clarification in many cases to make it clear that the 'you' is referring to multiple people. The Brits often say 'you lot' to similarly patch the glitch. But this is WSO so 'you fuckers' makes more sense.
I’ve seen females using this to address (almost) all female groups in emails / texts
I’m a female and I say this all the time without a second thought
Agree. Same.
Same, I even use it often when in a group of all women (and with some of the most hardcore feminists I know) and nobody ever cares
I’d say “everyone” (not a perfect substitute but good enough) until I notice a girl in the group say “you guys,” which wouldn’t take too long, and then I’d say “you guys” thereafter. For example, say “what does everyone think?” Instead of “what do you guys think?”
"semi SJW" is a good joke, try batshit crazy lol.
On another note, I use the words "bud" and "buddy" unironically and I looked a 70 year old man in the eye yesterday and called him "bud" with no hesitation. Can't wait till I call my next interviewer "buddy"
In my experience, it’s standard in RFPs and mandate letters to address the recipients and start the letter with “Dear Sirs”, no matter who actually receives it. Isn’t that a bit old school? A female associate freaks out every time we receive one...
The world we live in nowadays
Just say 'guys.' Who cares?
Even I find this semantic, and I've written papers on the differences between GICS and ICB industry classifications. (Sorry, that one's internal use only)
I stick to the traditional "ye" when addressing groups. This also has the benefit of adhering to modern mores of gender neutrality, thus burnishing my credentials and appearing more 'with-it'.
If I have to address someone singularly and I outrank them socially, as I usually do, I am sure to use "thou". Otherwise I default to "You". I suggest you follow my approach here.
Good thing we got another "SJW" thread on WSO though. We were definitely running low on those.
Originally from the South, we're pretty progressive down here ya know, using gender neutral terms such as "y'all" and whatnot.....
It's good if somebody gets offended at something stupid. It's free valuable information that they're someone you can disregard and pay no mind.
I have a former coworker who's aVP. She gets "Guys" but we go to drinks with former coworkers. (the karaoke afterward is fun)
I currently am going through training with a bunch of SJWs, who say that "guys" is offensive. I'm conflicted between just saying it anyways, or making sure I'm on good terms with everyone and saying "everyone."
I mean, there is a certain decor that needs to be observed. You need to be careful if you don't really know the people personally. I've sent "congratulations on your child" cards to half of the coworkers I didn't say it in person to, but will call 'bros'. (their Instagrams are crap, btw.)
UCH. Just reading that annoys me. Way totally ridiculous, and when this girl can't get a date, don't be surprised. Tell her to shave her armpits
What does she want you to say? Ladies and gentlemen?
You could say "everyone" or "everybody" I guess. I prefer you guys.
I’ve referred to a group of girls as “you guys” plenty of times. It’s never meant as a gender thing but instead as a way to refer to a group of people. Like, “do you guys know where the rest room is” instead of “do you people know where the rest room is”. If I was speaking to a group of girls saying “hey girls” would just come off as very weird..
Quick Story Time:
I used to bartend to put myself through university back in the day.
One day I had a party of two Karens/'Can I Speak To Your Manager' types. Bowl cut bangs on the front - long hair on the back - you get the picture.
I tried to open the conversation super friendly by saying "Hey guys, how can I help you two today? :)"
They responded cordially, I took their order, and went to go put it into the system. However, after I left they went directly to the hostess at the front to complain about me calling them "guys"....... they felt as if I did it on purpose to make them feel uncomfortable and yet they wouldn't even tell me to my face? At least tell me why you are unjustly offended....... Not immediately go try and run to someone to try and get me in trouble for saying what I thought was polite.....
This was back in 2013; I couldn't imagine what servers & bartenders have to put up with today with how this world is encouraging everyone to be offended by everything.
How many times have you said that though with no issues? If it’s not many and that was the only one then you have overly exaggerated the retardation of people. That one scenario has now defined your entire outlook about saying “you guys” when in reality most people didn’t care and that is the actual takeaway.
The problem with saying anything potentially offensive is not saying it to the 95% of people who are normal (i.e. competent). It's saying it to the
I think saying "you guys" is totally fine.
However, starting off emails with "gents' is gendered and should be done away with.
Plus, every time an email starts off with "gents" you know it is going to be bad...
This is the greater issue.
What an absolute toolbag way to start an email
How about starting it with gentiles?
Say "You people" instead.
It'll definitely come off better and if you get kickback revert to "You guys" again
On a similar note I met up with some friends to drink beers at at a city park. One of them was complaining about making minum wage at a cheese shop while shes getting her masters in Social Work (why??) at an expensive private college. My other friend was like yeah minum wage should be $20/hr, so that you can afford to live better etc. I was like uhh NO, and you shouldn't have to rely on minumam wage as an educated adult, and living in the neighborhoods that "you guys" do is a privilege, not a right. It was astonishing.
I used to wonder that myself until I started hearing it used in meeting by females as well. So I don’t see what the issue is. These fucking days you need to think about too much and tbh majority of people don’t give a fuck. Media and social media makes it seem as if it’s a hot topic but talk to 20 people and 18 will tell you this whole thing is stupid. But we somehow all of sudden base our lives on the few morons in society.
Tell her that gender is just a social construct anyways
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