"You guys"

I like it - beats the shit out of 'Ladies'.

OK, I agree its ridiculous that males won respond to female terns. But all that stems from deep rooted societal sexism.

Guy is originally an American English term meaning fellow....fellow officially means a companion or comrade....its not gendered.
Many women are "fellows" of formal societies.
In English guy meant a poorly dressed person like a guy fawkes effigy

Originally those terms would have been limited to men not because they are male in nature but because only men were allowed to enter those societies and social situations where those terms were used.
It's like saying you can't use the word player for people on a sorts team because originally all players were male.

Just one example of a term associated with women morphing into gender neutral? Just one? Please?

I'm a teacher and a few years ago I got to thinking about 'right guys' as a phrase and how the girls respond to it in a way that the boys wouldn't if we used a term that is traditionally a girl term eg 'right girls/ladies/lases/gals (I know some of these are grim and you'd never use them) etc. I then started thinking about how, in our society, we expect girls/women to respond when we call them by words that were traditionally given to men. If I said, Right guys, look this way' the whole class would look this way but if I said 'right girls, look this way.' Only the actual girls would bother. I then got to thinking about how society and language are from very masculine/male root words, even when they don't need to be and women just accept this as part of the status quo. When I thought about the word 'guys' in these terms, it really irritated me as there are perfectly fine words that are both male and female in a way that there aren't for the word history etc. I try so hard not to use the word guys now and have retrained myself to say 'everybody look this way'. It now really grates on me when I hear it used to address a mixed group and think it is really lazy when used to address a group of women/girls. I hear it all the time in school though.

No I don't tell him. It's a small team of 3 and it doesn't bother me enough to kick up a fuss to be honest. He has a lot of good points and I'm old enough to know what things to bother getting offended by, this isn't one of them.

Classic

I even find lionesses in itself a bit weird - in the sense of most female actors dodge the label "actress"

But that's because in previous generations being female used to be seen as being "less". But it isn't less, so there's nothing weird about being a lioness or an actress .

This might explain why my 10 strong all male sales team look uncomfortable when I say “right, ladies, what kind of week are you having?” 😂

But a guy is male. Folk is just people in general.

"you" is enough. No need to add "guys" , "ladies" or anything else

I refer to everyone as guys, including groups of women only. I call my kids guys and have even from when they were little, they are not all male. Couldn’t give a shiny shit if someone is bored enough to be bothered by this, I don’t rely on tips or anyone having to be particularly agreeable in order to make it through the day in any aspect of my life.

To blow some minds, I’m even completely unfazed when people call me mate. If I get ‘thanks mate’, I respond ‘no problems/you’re welcome’, as opposed to the pearler I have only ever come across on here ‘I’m not your mate’. Because I’m not a dick.

I don’t mind ‘guys’ personally

I get irrationally annoyed at ‘folk’ or ‘folks’ which is supposed to be a nice, gender-neutral term.

’Folx’ is even more 😡

and do you tell him? do you refer to him as "boy" to drive the point home? or do you just put up with it without making a fuss.

Because I certainly wouldn't accept that. Ever.

*Yes language matters. The message it sends is that men are the default and women just have to fit around that. It may seem trivial but it's not really.

It's this everyday sexism that's really hard to change as you can see from this post where people don't see that it's a bit deal.*

Thank goodness someone gets it.

I use it as a gender neutral term. It’s say less offensive than people saying “manning the reception” or “since man discovered fire” or just the general snowman, fireman etc etc.

Language evolves though, in the past guys was used to describe men but its interchangeable now. We have an older man in the office who refers to us as girls. I'm 44 and the other woman is 53! I find that far more annoying.

I'm not in the business of letting people police my language so I wouldn't be deterred from using "guys", which has developed into a neutral colloquialism, because someone else may resist the tides of change and choose to be offended.

well that is, of course, your prerogative. Good luck with that these days tho 😆

However. If you want something from me: a tip, or a service, you will be ignored if you persist in referring to me as "guy/s" and that will be your look out not mine.

"ladies" drives me batty, but i had a lot of that in the Army, either patronisingly or just as a general term of address that made it abundantly clear we weren't men.
"girls" for grown women? just no.

When i address a room of people, or write a multi-addressee email with mixed-sexes? Hello everyone is fine.

Thanks for summarising my point so beautifully in just one word. 😂

No need to wonder. We know for a fact (since they're trumpeting it all over the internet) that the wannabe women are all gurrrrls.

dies from cringe 😬

This reminds me of an ex-colleague (I was her manager) who used to call every older male customer "young man" and every older female "young lady". I tried to explain to her that this was patronising and there was no need to confirm the customers' gender for them as they were no doubt fully aware. It was so ingrained in her that she simply couldn't stop.

One day a young person came in who clearly wished to present as female. She served them in her usual friendly way but then said "thank you, young man" when giving them their change.

I hate "you guys". I hate HATE HATE it.

It is actively used to exclude women, some women think that it includes them, but it doesnt. When a man says "you guys" in his head he is really talking to the other men, the women just happen to be listening in.

I do say "you guys" but cringe afterwards. I don't think I use gender terms that much. I hope I just say things like;

"have you all decided what you'd like?"

"I'm having a night out with friends"

"Hi/hello everyone"

And if I found myself on R4 discussing the success of our Women's national football team or send them a message I hope I'd say "they/you were amazing", "we're all proud of you" etc. as the listener would presumably know anyway.

It's often not necessary to say guys, ladies, gentlemen, girls or yous at all.