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 don't think anyone said "hey" in the UK in the 90s.

They didn't.

Apart from a bloke I knew who was in the Christian Club at university. He said 'Hey' once, in 1994, and everyone else took the piss out of him for the rest of the year.

I prefer guys to team

Guys is masculine when used in a gender-specific fashion and gender neutral as a collective.

I definitely say “hi, guys,” to a group of female friends.

Dude, as the great linguistic guru Crush the Sea Turtle makes plain, is suitable for nearly every occasion. (Likewise Offspring as appropriate term for any and all children regardless of sex)

I use guys in an informal context.

While I might use "hi team" at work I would never use to address a group of friends.

I’ll make one last attempt… how about a non-gendered: “All/everyone/everbody”. It would seem to fits all scenarios.

Yup.
The problem is that the words guy or guys can be used to refer to a lone male, or a male group, as well as a mixed sex group. (But not a lone female.)
If you say 'that guy over there' you're definitely talking about a bloke. And if you say

'those guys over there' it's often a group of blokes. (EG, 'see those guys up at the bar....') If someone says 'see those guys over there,' meaning a group of men and women, it's much less clear to whom they are referring.

Nothing more likely to start my day off on a bad note as the knob channelling his inner Partridge by saying 'Hello, Colleagues' before wittering on about something NOBODY cares about.

Except someone bouncing into a meeting that absolutely nobody wanted to have 'Morning, TEAM!'. That guarantees murderous rage, especially as it is always followed by the palming off of shitloads of work - for which they will get the accolades and higher pay, claiming it as all their own work when they struggle on a daily basis remembering how to drive close enough to the gate to open it with their pass.

Did you just start this thread to show off your meme?😂

I say ‘hey guys’ to everyone. Even if I’m greeting my friends and all of us are women

I like to address groups of people as "she's, gays and theys" - purposefully excluding straight males 😜

On a (slightly) more serious note I occasionally use "hey troops" at work when addressing colleagues. It amuses me to think of us as heading into battle when really we are all staring at computers in the office/at home.

My friendship group would take the piss mercilessly -- ask when you're going back to LaLa land, or if that promotion to junior sales exec has come through yet....

You will likely get a different response though if you ask a heterosexual bloke how many people he has has sex with or how many guys he has has sex with.

I’m 24 so maybe it’s an age thing, who knows. We always said, ‘hey guys’ or ‘guys guess what?’ and I guess it’s just stuck with us throughout adulthood. I don’t see the problem. Do I need to say ‘hey girls’ instead just because we’re not shock horror actual guys?

Well, no.

Not according to the Cambridge dictionary. It's informal, true (so it would have been very stylistically odd if you had ever been addressed as such in a formal setting) but it's not impolite or incorrect in an informal setting. Age is irrelevant unless linguistically English is changing into one of the languages with different terms of address to be deferential to older people (it isn't)

It's interesting about the use of "ladies". It can be both purposefully patronising (as in your example) and also a choice made when people think they are being very polite. Context is all.

https://www.smartmouth.blog/blog/hey-sue-a-brief-history-of-the-way-we-greet-one-another#:~:text=Hey%20and%20Hi%20have%20long,might%20imply%20%E2%80%9Cnatural%E2%80%9D%20origins.

Here's an interesting summary of how "hey" came about.

TL:DR- both hey and hi are from Middle English and not the US of A.

In restaurant at weekend DH & I were constantly addressed as 'guys' & I found it really irritating. 'Are you ready to order?' Not 'Are you guys ready to order?'. Not just one member of staff but all of them!

Surely ‘Hi everyone’ is acceptable? Would do for the sheep too, problem solved.

Acceptable!

@ASighMadeOfStone it is indeed patronising but worse than that, it is deliberately insulting and demeaning because to a certain type of person, usually male, we women are lesser.
It's rank sexism.

Why? Are you making an assumption that Im mentally ill?

Yes, you have worded my feelings better.

I hear it all the time and I'm struggling to find the words to challenge it in real life.

Any suggestions?

Like, "hi, would you be kind enough to address me with something either truly gender neutral or inclusive of women please?"

What do you think?

Cracking up 😂

Love this

My yoga teacher would like this, she is hard core!

It was to the pp who asked if she'd rather be a guy than a gal. No one here can decide for her and GP can maybe help get the ball rolling.