Hey Guys! Vs Hey Team!

[SwordToFlamethrower]

In the 90s, I remember when people addressed a group of people as "hey guys and gals!" But then it got shortened to just "guys".

It really pees me off that they dropped addressing women and girls from a crowd. Why?

No one says "see that guy over there?" When it is a woman they're referring to, but a crowd of mixed sex people are defaulted to being male. In my mind, a "guy" is a male. Guy is an actual male name and saying "guys" feels sexist.

My amazing Yoga teacher addresses everyone as "Team" and I think this is really uplifting and inclusive! She will say "Ok Team, take a deep breath!" Or "Well done Team!" I feel included, confident and valued when addressed as part of a team.

The other day I went to visit a petting farm and a woman addressed a group of pregnant ewes as "guys" and I found it so utterly weird.

So I made a meme and ask, if you agree, to share it.

I'm on my mobile so can't activate the voting, apologies!

YABU - "Guys" is shorthand for women and for men

YANBU - "Team" instead of guys works better for addressing a mixed sex crowd of people

I just call everyone a cunt and keep it equal

"Lads" seems to be use nowadays, as well. Really winds me up.

Imagine getting called that at Yoga class 😂

Saved me typing it.

This is the only reasonable way forward 😆

This isn’t something I’d give a second thought to.

Please add this option to the meme

It doesn’t bother me. I think of it as a gender neutral term. There are so many ways society treats women and girls badly/diminishes them that I think we have bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

😂😂

Not 'team' or 'guys'. I use various words; everyone, all (in emails), peeps, you lot, all depends on the situation.

And yes, 'guys' is sexist. Unless they'd use 'girls' in the same context. You can see people would view that as an insult and you can therefore see 'male' is considered a promotion and 'female' as a demotion.

Literally doesn't bother me one bit. In fact I probably use guys collectively for a group of mixed sex people too 🤔

+1 for cunt, definitely needs adding to the chart

'Lads' is completely unisex in Ireland. It might be addressed to an all-female group.

If someone addressed I group I was in as 'Team!' I would assume they'd just returned from a California-flavoured management seminar and those adressed would be rolling their eyes.

I find being addressed as “guys “:utterly cringe worthy because it sounds like someone is trying to be cool, but I don’t find it sexist. To be honest I think I would find “hey team!” just as annoying.

I unconsciously use guys and often make a conscious decision to use 'everyone' or 'all'. Especially because of the 11 people I work closely with, 8 of them are women.

'Team' sounds a bit forced and over the top.

I've actually just covered the use of "guys" in an English writing class. A lot of my students use it as in "the guys in the room were...".
I've pointed out that when used in this way, it still refers to males only, whereas as a direct address "hi guys" the language has evolved to include both male and female.

“Guys” and “team” are both naff as fuck. No need to have a collective noun anyway.

I just use “all”. Lowest possible cringe factor.

This has made my day 😂

"Guys" makes me twitch too, but on FB a while ago an American poster said her teenage DD did refer to a sole woman as 'that guy over there'. So maybe it's only a matter of time? This is also where the you plural would come in useful - like again in the US "y'all" although it doesn't sound very British. I like Hey Team. I have a teacher who is American and starts the class with Hello Friends, which is nice.

Hey Team is just awful.

I don't mind "well done, team" so much, but I hate it when it is used as a greeting, like "Hi team". No idea why it grates on me so much.

Worst of all is "folks". Go away with your folks nonsense.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/guys

Cambridge dictionary explanation.

You'd be horrified to know that I call most people dude regardless of gender

This…I have never given it any headspace TBH !

I think this is really interesting (sad). I read that the term 'guy' might have started with Guy Fawkes and the guys that children would parade around with - and that it originally meant someone that was poorly dressed. Then came to mean man and eventually 'guys' became gender neutral. The Cambridge dictionary even says 'used to address a group of people of either sex'.

Personally I love it and use it all the time, it's just the relaxed friendliness of it that I really like. I mean in more formal work 'team' might be better and with people you barely know 'everyone' might be better. But neither have the warmth and friendliness of 'guys' to me. My son will confirm I'm a complete cringe fest though.