You're viewing a single thread.
Poll: is “guy” gender neutral yet? It is in my part of Northern California but I have accidentally confused people before.
It depends on usage.
"He's a guy." Is gendered.
"Hey you guys!" Is gender neutral.
"She's a guy." Is transphobic.
How about "She's my guy"?
May work in context?
If she's your hook up yes, but if she's someone with whom you hook up no
Context dependent - i.e. walking up to a group and saying 'hey guys' is gender neutral, but saying 'I saw a guy the other day' generally implies you saw a man.
I think there's never going to be a true consensus on things like this.
A friend who is a trans woman told me that sometimes when people say "hey guys" or similar, she often feels an instinctive rush of dysphoria (especially if it's a context where she's the only woman in the group), but that she realises it is often intended in a gender neutral manner, so it's not reasonable for her to feel upset at this. She considers the upset that she feels at this to be "her problem" so to speak, and doesn't expect people to change how they speak. Since this discussion though, I have tried to be more mindful of it when using words like "dude" or "guy" as collective terms.
Yeah, it sucks that trans people have to shoulder this additional burden on top of all the other shit that society throws at them.
“Guys” (plural) seems to have two meanings:
- an group of people
- a group of men
“Guy” (singular) doesn’t seem to be gender neutral, so it seemingly only means “random man.”
So, “you guys” can be gender neutral, but if you’re a guy who dates guys, you’re likely gay, bi, pan, or queer.
I've started using folks because I couldn't answer that question
There’s a right wing politician here who made “folks” his trademark so I can’t bring myself to use that one either:
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/06/folks-folks-folks-folks-folks/
It depends on who you ask, but I think that when you say "guy" most people think of a man.