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Here is a link to the actual graph she has on her blog: http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/27/guys-guys-guys/ http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/27/guys-guys-guys/ The impor
by jtchang 12y ago
Here is a link to the actual graph she has on her blog:
http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/27/guys-guys-guys/ http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/27/guys-guys-guys/
The important thing we as a community need to understand is that there are terms that can be very gender specific and at the same time being gender neutral depending on the context.
- eterm 12y agoMostly that just seems to show that "guys" (plural) is taken as mostly neutral but "guy" (singular) is not.
- djur 12y agoThat seems accurate to me. I do try to avoid 'guys' and 'dudes' in professional contexts, for the reasons mentioned in the OP, but it can be difficult to remember. Most of my closest friends are women, and 'hey guys' and 'hey dudes' are common greetings even when the group is all women (other than me). I don't usually address individuals by anything other than their name, but 'dude' is occasionally used for either a man or a woman, while 'guy' in the singular is clearly only for men. I mean, 'guy' is male-identified to the point that it's used as an indicator -- "guy stuff" versus "girl stuff", etc. It's not a huge stretch to perceive the plural as only quasi-neutral, addressing women by assumption rather than by explicit inclusion.