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

'Friends' is indeed nice. It tends to be used in elementary and preschool mostly.

My DDs come from a generation that favoured "ho", with "hos" as a plural, to refer to a girl or girls in their group. It was a little jarring at first but there was a funny side to it. ("Hey, ho"). "I'm going bowling with ma hos tonight, mom"... They were all bright, MC girls with their sights on university and six figure incomes. I think they all thought it was the female equivalent of "homie" and "homies".

Possibly 👉👈

Ahaaa gotcha, that makes perfect sense now, thought it was a bit mean otherwise!

I cringe at Hey Team and Hey Guys (& Gals).

Hello Everyone suffices.

Can't get too excited about 'guys' - in my head it is a completely unisex term and frequently used in all-female groups I'm a part of.

On the other hand, I semi-frequently receive internal work emails address 'Morning/afternoon chaps" and it drives me nuts. Usually I'm the only woman on the distribution list and it makes me feel like I shouldn't be there.

It's fine to call women "guys" and "dudes" if you're also happy to call men "ladies" or "girls"

At school I always say ‘hey team” or ‘you okay team?’ to groups of students. They look at me confused - then I say ‘team name of the school’. I do this because of the large amount of students identifying as this that or the other and I’ve made a few mistakes saying she/her about a boy with long hair and had a few complaints - so now everybody is specifically gender neutral.

I think as an informal greeting you have to go with "y'alright cunts" because "hey cunts" sounds a bit like you are trying to start a fight.

Similarly you probably couldn't start an email "dear cunts" without it sounding passive aggressive but possibly "hey you cunts" might work.

"Look at that / those cunt(s) over there" can be used very gender neutrally and the intonation will give the intent.

Feel like the word cunt is starting to lose all meaning to me now.

Yo bitches works for me as a greeting. Don't care whether they are male or female.

How about " hey chaps and flaps".

😂

I use guys for a mixed group....or even a group of all women
I am pretty sensitive to sexism but this really doesn't bother me and feels neutral.

yes we have. But the smaller fish become bigger fish. I don't accept being referred to as "guy" and i will always mention it.

"Hello everyone" is fine, as is "hello"

And for those who will inevitably say "bigger fish to fry" and "doesn't bother me" bully for you. It bothers me. If i ask one of my male friends "how was the date with that guy yesterday?" they will mostly say "it was a woman"

If i ask one of my male friends "how was the date with that guy yesterday?" they will mostly say "it was a woman"

Quite

as pp mentioned, we're supposed to be flattered that a male term is now being used for women. It's an upgrade for us.

To that i say: fuck that shit. If i say "i'm not a guy" and the waiter/waitress keeps saying it, i have been known to draw them aside and tell them their tip depends on keeping me happy. But I'm mean.

in the early 70s we had a visiting PE teacher from the US
she would address the class as 'guys' (we were split for PE, so all girls
eg
'gee, I don't know, some of you guys seem to have a period every week'

Me too

I define use “guys” for groups of women but make an effort not to do it at work as I know some people don’t like it.

Hey guys is gender neutral. No, I wouldn't say 'a guy' for a woman, but it's idiom and context. Ultimately that's how people use the word so it includes women.

'Hey Team' on the other hand makes my skin twitch slightly. It's got that horrible forced friendliness/ business bullshit feel.

What about if he’d been out in a mixed group and you asked ‘how were the guys last night?’ Would he then say there were both men and women present, or would he understand you meant a mixed group?

Agree about “folks”. Not sure why, but I’m really not keen on it. Same goes for “peeps”.
Don’t really mind “guys” tbh… “Team” sounds weirdly corporate.

I hate “Hey”
What happened to hello, or dear or whatever.
Am off now to sit mumbling to myself about americanisation of british culture and language.

'Hey folks/everyone/you lot' works for me. I'm a teacher. I currently work in an all girls' school, but we have recently been instructed not to address the class as 'girls', for reasons I am sure you can imagine... This has been particularly annoying for those of us in the languages department, since you generally have the choice of the (default, obvs) male plural which counts as mixed too, or the female plural.

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

Weve been using that in Ireland for years. Went to an all girls school..we always called out to our groups as "lads". Maybe its more normal in Ireland...

In this post Tiger King era, surely everyone greets groups of people with 'hey all you cool cats and kittens', no?