To think that there should be a female equivalent to "guys" or "chaps"

[TheBossofMe]

Leading on from another thread about terms used to describe women, I realised that there isn't a word that we use to describe a group of women that is gender-specific but not age-specific.

We use the terms "guys" or "chaps" for men and boys of any age. So someone can be one of the guys if he's 5, 15 or 50.

But for women, we have "girls" which should only be applied to the young and "women" which is only applied to the not-that-young-anymore.

So we need a whole new word, a MN-originated word, that we use to describe a group of females of any age.

Because we know that if we use it enough on MN, it eventually transcends into real life, and then into popular usage, and then the OED, and then immortality beckons for us all (or something!).

Anyone got any good ideas?

Queens no too camp!

As in "flicking the bean" Really?! Makes sense.

Nothing with "ette" it is always stuck on the end of a masculine term
Hully I hadn't realised that! I was thinking of words like Juliette and that seemed feminine.

cats.

Shes.

I agree what we need is a female version of Bloke. Nobody gets offended at being called a Bloke do they?

Wiktionary gives a Coordinate Term for Blokes : Sheila.

Sheila is too Australian-sounding to catch on worldwide. How about Janes? Or is that too reminiscent of Jane Doe?

Traceys?

They can if they like, I shall ignore them. It's nasty.

We need a 'bloke' word too, that's why 'girl' gets used so often. Imagine the sentence 'He's a great bloke' - using 'man' completely changes the tone. You'd only say 'a great man' if he was up there with Martin Luther King.
'She's a great girl' manages to be both patronising, and imply either some kind of Golden Girls gameoldbird type. 'She's a great woman' just sounds odd.

'She's a great Tracey'

Jenny
Hen
Doe

I like Jenny.

She was a great hen? She was a great jenny? She was a great doe?

Now none of them work.

Me and my friends use 'ladies'. As in (in the pub) "right ladies, where next?". More of a general description of us all being female than any of us acting like ladies tbh....

Nobody has mentioned "chicks" and that has been around for ages...

And yes, "ladies" is widely used and not age-specific.

I know! How about knids?

Am liking the "she's a great..." as a test sentence.

I guess lass is used in some areas as the relevant term. But is that just for the young? Maybe

So we have:

cat
she
bean
hen
jenny
doe
lady
queen

Knids works for me! Guys and Knids. Hmmm.

'She's a great knid'. Works very well for me.

chicks is only used for young women, though, isn't it. You wouldn't refer to a group of 10 yos as chicks. Or a group of 80 year olds.

Ladies doesn't work in the "she's a great..." test - its up there with the MLK example.

Can't take 'ladies' seriously. My headmistress called us that from age 12 and it sounds soooooo old fashioned.

Sheila?

What's a Knid?

Is it a bit like a snitch from Harry Potter. But female?

Laydeyes! That's what i call my bitches

Not Cat. A friend of mine who thinks he's ever so hip uses Cats in place of Guys.

(From Clockword Orange) Devotchka

Ladies have to be ladylike.

Hen is too regional, so's Lass and Sheila.

These are knids.

Vermicious Knids - VERY bad. Tormented the poor Oompa Loompas.
But then they were preachy, smug fuckers, the O.L.s. So I'm down with Knids.