guys != gender neutral

Thu Sep 27 18:47:47 UTC 2012

Here is the south we simply use "y'all".

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Brian Raaen
Network Architect
Zcorum

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 2:36 PM, JC Dill <jcdill.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 27/09/12 11:10 AM, Jo Rhett wrote:
>>
>> Or when actually referring to persons of mixed gender, here's a quote from
>> something I posted in a private forum (my own journal) which is safe for
>> export:
>>>
>>> Because frankly, we're all in this together and honestly everyone loves
>>> the competition. The guys I race with often come find me afterwards and tell
>>> me where they got past me, or ask me how I kept passing them. The really
>>> fast girls rarely want more than a beer to go out on the track and give you
>>> a detailed breakdown on what you are doing wrong. We all help each other.
>>
>>
>> In this situation I'm leaving it up the reader to grasp that I'm not
>> saying that the girls are all faster than the boys, but I believe it's
>> understood in context as the topic was about how peers help each other out.
>
>
> It's NOT helping to equivocate "guys" and "girls"!
>
> Guys and gals = equivalent
> Boys and girls = equivalent
> Guys and girls != equivalent
>
> All the TV shows that refer to female contestants as "girls" are not helping
> when they (universally) refer to the males as "guys".  Unless you refer to
> the male contestants (on TV) or team members (at work) as "boys" you
> shouldn't be using the word "girls" to refer to the females.
>
>
>
>> I really wish that english had better pronouns for this.
>
>
> I really wish folks would dig a bit deeper into the thesaurus to find
> appropriate words.  One can use a variety of gender neutral words with some
> simple re-writing.  Remember, it's perfectly OK to employ singular "they" as
> well.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
>
> jc
>