I think it's mostly Gender neutral for 90 percent of people who hear the phrase often, and 10 percent probably dislike it and feel the term is lacking. That may differ depending on where a person is from. If you are ok with possibly offending someone or encountering a sarcastic "I'm not a guy"...then use it. If you don't want to risk offending someone and dealing with it then don't say it. I figure that's a good rule of thumb for anything.
Personally I don't use it because the phrase reminds me of the movie "the Goonies" and I HATE that movie.
@Scribbles Lol, someone else mentioned that movie and I've never seen it. 🤷
But, yes, I generally do avoid the phrase when I'm outside of New England because I know that cultural norms do vary. But I fell into my "relaxed" speaking patterns and she caught me. Btw, not in an offended way, but a teasing way. She and I joke often about how her southern belle personality might someday rub off on my northern brashness and vice versa.
SW-User
I think it's gender neutral, granted the "guys" is a masculine pronoun it's also used as the pronoun when talking about a group, even with mixed genders
For the Perpetually Offended, Woke, Virtue Signaling, Vegan Cyclist crowd it is a microaggression trigger requiring a Time Out in a Safe Space with coloring books and puppies.
I don't see why anybody would be bothered enough to feel the need to say something. Did she really think you were confused about whether she is male or female? "You guys," "kid," even "dude" are used for all genders and ages where I am and nobody cares.
Maybe everyone should just switch to saying "you people." I doubt anyone would be offended by being referred to as a person, but I've been surprised before.
nor, i venture to suggest, would any of you refer to a group that contained at least one man, as "you girls", without expecting some come back from the guy/guys. and it would be quite reasonable for them to object.
@Yulianna It's pretty widely accepted and understood that "you guys" is gender neutral.
Your question is the same as replacing "mankind" with something like "womankind." One has a generally accepted meaning, even if it's not technically correct, and the other is someone trying to make a point.
@SooperSarah "mankind" has been widely used, but is now more correctly expressed as "humankind" - which is clearly inclusive and gender neutral.
this is not at all the same as "you guys" and "you girls", both of which are gender specific and exclusive. otherwise, i am sure you would agree, it would be perfectly acceptable to address a group of guys as "you girls".
Southerners and those with southern roots don't have this problem. "Y'all" (you all) is what they/we say instead of "you guys". It is a gender neutral way of referring to any group of people.
I understand "you guys" to be gender neutral north of the Mason-Dixon line, but you can expect to be corrected again if you continue to say that when you're dealing with southerners.
I'm personally in the habit of saying "you all" or simply "you".
@Rutterman Yup. I've always thought it was a north-south thing and my friend here is from the south. But the poll seems to be going almost exclusively gender neutral.
I have to shout you down and get in the last word because that proves I am right and defends my fragile ego cuz if I don’t I will eat the family size bag of Doritos and blame the world for all my problems. (Hands on ears and shouting) La la la not listening! La la la not listening! @Budwick
@bellybuttonfan17, @Budwick, @DukeOfEarle -- First, I'm quite capable of speaking for myself. No one needs to ever tell anyone else what I did or didn't say. Next, if ya wanna beat each other up, please go do it someplace else. Displays of testosterone do not impress here. In fact, it has quite the opposite effect on me. Finally, ... oh never mind, I forget what I originally wanted to respond to here anyway. Sheesh!
@SW-User Cool. I use it (when I'm home in New England) for groups of men, or groups of women, or mixed. If you don't mind my asking, since I think these habits are regional, what part of the country or the world are you from?
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It's the same as saying 'mankind'. It applies to everyone but stems from the older misogynistic mindset which people don't think about now 'cause they're used to it and use it as a gender neutral term
@SW-User I remember reading that crap in the bible of all places
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@pride49 religious texts are full of misogyny.. I wonder why? 😂
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It's neutral. It's filling a gap in pronoun system (we have no plural "you" so we have to use phrases like "you all", "you guys", or in some areas, "y'all").
It really doesn't depend where you're from. It depends on who you are addressing it to. I have friends from all over. In some groups, it flies just fine. I one group, I used it and the girl in the group said "I am not a guy". So I just switched to "Hey all, or hey ya'll" .
Case in point: Like Pavlov’s dog, you’ve been triggered. I however am largely amused by what people say or think of me. Opinions are like assholes. Most of them stink. So let’s see what your hypersensitive reply is going to be. @Yulianna
I've been told that it's gendered, and that y'all is preferable ... By a Yankee young woman who further told me that kids shouldn't say yes ma'am or yes, sir.
I worked that phrase out of my vocabulary for many years. Then in the past few years, I've been observing much more closely the ways women use language. I discovered that it was actually more women who used the phrase of other women than men of other men. So ironically, I added it back into my vocabulary.
@ShadowSister Yup, it does. I was trying to get a sense for how widespread the generic use of "guys" actually was. I've gotten in the habit of not using it outside of New England, but it seems based on my poll that it is now near universal.
Funny thing is I have never seen this film. I get the references, know the general story line and have seen clips, but never the whole film, 🤷🏻♂️ @sarabee1995