gender-neutral second-person plurals

[firecat]

I left this datapoint in selki's journal. (She said that the word "guy" isn't "some sort of modern gender-neutral salutation". Let me be clear that I completely respect this viewpoint.)

"Guys" or "you guys" has a completely gender-neutral connotation to me...but only when used as a second-person plural pronoun, the same way people use "y'all" or "youse". It feels wrong to me to address or label a woman or girl as a "guy" or to say "Those guys over there" when referring to a mixed group or a group of women/girls. But I'll comfortably say "OK, you guys..." even to a group of all women.

This isn't modern; I've been doing it my whole life and I'm over 50. I grew up in Michigan; I wonder if this is a regional usage.

In contrast, "dude," "men," "mankind," and "he/him" have a male-only connotation to me, although I can hear other people use "dude" in a gender-neutral manner. (I can't do that with the other words.)

Thoughts? Datapoints?

I also use "y'all," "youse" (but they don't feel like "my language"; they feel like I'm stealing them from other people's language), "peeps," and "folks." ("Peeps" feels modern to me, and "folks" feels old-fashioned.)

Comments

[amadi]

Meanwhile, anyone actually in Pittsburgh who says yinz is immediately marked as someone who is to be taken a little less seriously...

[feuervogel]

Well, yeah. Court mainly uses it tongue in cheek, like when posting Yinztagram pictures to facebook (or "Go Stillers") or saying "Hey yinzers, anyone want to go out tonight?"

Then there's how people perceive "y'allers." William Shatner made fun of a fan who asked a question of him at Dragon*Con and used "y'all." Leonard Nimoy told him he was being an asshole.

[firecat]

William Shatner made fun of a fan who asked a question of him at Dragon*Con and used "y'all." Leonard Nimoy told him he was being an asshole.

I wish I could have been there.

[feuervogel]

Here is a summary, and a fan recorded the whole panel and put it up in 7 parts on YouTube. part 1. (I don't know how far into the panel it was, but at least halfway through I think.)

[amadi]

Further proof that Leonard Nimoy is a true quality individual!