Is calling 'people' 'folk' part of gender ideology rewriting language norms or is it separate?

Secondary teacher in Scotland here. We are encouraged to use 'folks' instead of 'guys' or gendered terms like 'ladies and gentlemen'. I associate it with woke nonsense (perhaps wrongly) so I call my classes all sorts instead: 'you lucky little ducks', 'you bunch of horrors', 'you noisy lot', etc.

I went through a phase of regularly (politely!) pulling people up at work for using "guys", I work in a traditionally male dominated industry and found it really grating, especially if I was the only woman or if there were (miraculously) more women than men in the group being referred to. Folks is a good alternative, in my opinion, and is mostly used to avoid guys where I work.

But that's not what the handmaids did. They generally weren't collaborators.

This is a term I've always used. I hope it isn't appropriated.

I'm in Scotland and use 'folk' and 'folks' all the time.

Always have and nothing to do with gender.

A minister from a church I used to go to used the word folk or folks all the time, I'm pretty sure it was part of his dialect rather than being trendy (it was 15+ years ago) He was Welsh if that makes a difference.

Within our own family me and DD refer to the males in the house as "menfolk" and she refers to me and DH as "parentfolk".

Because they are doing men's dirty work for them out of self-hatred and an inferiority complex.

Yes, it's definitely very commonly used in more "woke" circles (lived in Bristol for years). It makes me cringe, although folx is worse.

Men and their hand maidens policing everyone’s speech

Now on the subject of the use of words, this is one that often puzzles me. Why do people refer to female supporters of GI as "handmaidens"? From what I remember of the book, the handmaids were not willing participants in Gilead. They were slaves effectively. These female pronouners are more akin to Aunt Lydia than handmaids.

It’s not a coincidence. I’m a lesbian in my 30s and where I am in the company of so called queer people (like you say means basically anyone who wants to Identify into that label) they all use it.

infact I’ve been told off twice for using hey guys / girls.

men and their hand maidens policing everyone’s speech

Isn't that what Michelle from ze Resistance says when she starts speaking English?

@GiveMeMySoddingCokeZero See also “eleventy-billion”. Pretty sure I identified a colleague as a MN-er when she used that in an email

I say 'right folks' to my class when I want attention. It's better than guys

I’m in Central Scotland - the word folk is common and always has been, no connotations intended at all

I'm.going to start calling everyone "chums".

I'm from the south of England and have noticed this too among the more GI-supportive people I know. They also tend to say human, as in "Oh thank you, you lovely human!"

Foak as in oak.

It's not "policing". It's observing. I expect if you analysed MN using corpus linguistics you'd find some distinctive language usage here, some of which may well colour the way some members speak in their non-MN lives too.

Grim, for example. I bet that would turn up at a far higher frequency on MN than in most English-language corpora, and I'd also wager that, on average, the way it gets used on MN skews heavily towards a particular subset of the ways the word "grim" can be used.

But noticing that, and pointing it out, isn't "policing" anybody, or alienating them into silos Identifying and commenting on distinctive ways that language gets used within a particular community, and more broadly by that community's members, is a perfectly valid thing to do and doesn't imply any criticism of anyone. Noticing that MNers use "grim" in a particular way, and quite frequently, is different to claiming that nobody used "grim" before MN existed, or saying that using "grim" is a sure sign of a MNer, or trying to tell people that they should/shouldn't use "grim" or that they should/shouldn't use it in a particular way (or trying to alienate MNers/non-MNers into a silo).

It's fine if you're not interested in language and communities, but there are people (like me) who find this stuff fascinating

Snap

Seriously you need to stop overanalyzing language like this.

Folks is used for generations as is kiddos. I am sick and tired of people policing language. All you are doing is alienating people into sylos.

Having read the word folks so much in this thread I now have no idea how to pronounce the word.

The TRA usage of ‘folks’ or ‘folk’ though is intended to send specific gender identity dogma signals. People wanting to show they are supporting the party line in this also use ‘folx’. Where a random x substituted into ‘folks’ implies that boring norms are being messed with and suggests that inclusivity isn’t found in typical spelling () see also ‘womxn’. (Is there an equivalent Mxn? Pxople? Sorry that should be Pxoplx?)

In these settings ‘folks’ is just a twee faux-cosy imported Americanism- for example in London as I have seen it used, which isn’t a place with a local history of using ‘folks’. It’s often preferred to saying non-binary ‘people’. I think it’s gone a bit out of fashion by now.

😬I didn't know you were asking for both words. I was talking about folks. I need to RTFT next time.

So the pronunciation for folks and folx is the same? How do you know if people are saying folks or folx? Or is it only when it’s written down that you see the difference?

I sometimes say "right folks, let's get dinner started" or whatever.

But when people say "trans folk" it just reminds me of Woodland Folk - that hippy version of the Scouts. Like they're out with guitars, making friendship bracelets in the forest.