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As an American speaker who grew up in the south and lives in the Midwest, that's not true in every case. When addressing a mixed group, "hey guys" can usually w

As an American speaker who grew up in the south and lives in the Midwest, that's not true in every case. When addressing a mixed group, "hey guys" can usually work. When talking about a group of unspecific people, it can work, but mostly because our cultural default is to assume male. When talking about a group of specific individuals "the guys in the office are smart" I would take that to be more specifically male. It's definitely not unambiguously mixed gender. In the case of the GP, the word was used to make a point about the ambiguity of the word, in a way that's very naturally idiomatic for a native English speaker, imo.

lobotryas 9y ago
As another native speaker I can say that "guys" refers to a mixed gender group perfectly well. Saying that it implies a predominantly male group is more indicative of your personal life experiences or bias. Regarding GP, my only guess is that they were virtue signaling because they explicitly went out of their way to make that point. If they really wanted to avoid gendered nouns they could have written "folks", "people", or any number of similar words (kind of like how I'm doing here, by not assuming GP's gender).
- falsedan 9y ago
  'Folk' is fine, though try to work out how to drop 'comrade' into your vocab. In this particular case, the OP could have used 'researchers' and: 1. avoided putting off/distracting people by the use of gendered language; 2. been more precise.
- GavinMcG 9y ago
  Also a native speaker, here. Seems to me that "guys" can refer to a group of men, or to a mixed-gender group, but not to a group of women. So while it's absolutely the case that it can refer to a mixed-gender group, using it that way is still problematic in that it emphasizes men's membership.
  - lucasmullens 9y ago
    I use "guys" to refer to groups of women all the time. I don't think people who say "you guys" check and make sure it isn't 100% women before saying it.

lobotryas 9y ago

As another native speaker I can say that "guys" refers to a mixed gender group perfectly well. Saying that it implies a predominantly male group is more indicative of your personal life experiences or bias. Regarding GP, my only guess is that they were virtue signaling because they explicitly went out of their way to make that point. If they really wanted to avoid gendered nouns they could have written "folks", "people", or any number of similar words (kind of like how I'm doing here, by not assuming GP's gender).

falsedan 9y ago
'Folk' is fine, though try to work out how to drop 'comrade' into your vocab. In this particular case, the OP could have used 'researchers' and: 1. avoided putting off/distracting people by the use of gendered language; 2. been more precise.
GavinMcG 9y ago
Also a native speaker, here. Seems to me that "guys" can refer to a group of men, or to a mixed-gender group, but not to a group of women. So while it's absolutely the case that it can refer to a mixed-gender group, using it that way is still problematic in that it emphasizes men's membership.
- lucasmullens 9y ago
  I use "guys" to refer to groups of women all the time. I don't think people who say "you guys" check and make sure it isn't 100% women before saying it.