"guys" - an acceptable form of address for women?

[BelleCurve]

Is this appropriate/acceptable ever to use for a team of women/mixed? Does it matter if the person saying it is male or female?

I am trying to think of an improvement, but "ladies" or "girls" is even worse

"Chaps" is OK if said in a slightly Bigglesish way "OK, chaps - lets get weaving" I do that sometimes.

But I have a friend who always says "Chaps and chapesses". Which makes me want to kill him.

I would only avoid using it where there might be a risk that those I was addressing could imagine I thought they were actually men when they are maybe mixed or women.

So for instance on a tech forum when I have had replies to a post, I might not say 'thanks guys' if one of the respondents was a woman, because she might think I was assuming she was a bloke just for knowing about tech stuff. I wouldn't want to offend.

Otherwise I see NO issue with it, and think it's not worth worrying about. Subsuming into the male mantle or claiming the term for us as women> you decide.

I use 'folks', never been able to say guys since I'm not American.

I think you can only say that you are "claiming the term for use by women" if there was a snowball's chance in hell that a term used only for women would ever be used to cover a mixed group.

[very-cautious-about-this-reclaiming-business-emoticon]

BIL uses 'team' and since DH is one of 5 when out with the ILs it's very appropriate.

I know what you mean seeker but even so...it's one of those massively overthought things. Life is too short, or is it?

I cna't be bothered to analyse its origins, I just use it as it's easy I suppose.

Not that I would do the same with battery eggs, mind, but that involves actual suffering. iyswim some things are worth worrying about and some just aren't.

You could also say that wearing trousers is being subsumed into the masculine...while there is little chance that the man in ths skirt will catch on.

Should we not wear kecks then?

Another user of 'folks' here. I don't hate 'guys' and I wouldn't assume male when I hear it.

By the way, I call my parents 'the folks' or 'my folks'.

I say 'Guys' - when they were little, one of ds's friends used to refer to me as the 'guy lady'!!!

I would class the term as an idiom of speech rather than something that needs to be grammatically correct. So it depends where you come from. In the North East they quite often add "man" when exclaiming and I don't bat an eyelid.

I don't object to "ladies" either if I am in the company of just ladies. What is wrong with that? I think some people are overthinking this.

I think language and what we call things is important. It says a lot about how we think about them. If the male term for something is predominant, it indicates that as a society, we regard males as predominant. Do we really watn our daughters groing up in a society where male is the norm, and female the adaptation?

You can say "It's only words" and "Don't overthink", but words are crucial to our humanity - and in my experience, underthinking is much more of a danger than overthinking!

Seeker I agree with bunbaker though that in diffeent areas words have different connotations. That was evident from the ladies/girls thread yesterday in AIBU. Some people thought of girls as a compliment as in fun loving, young, and others saw it as an insult and means they arent taking seriously.

Some on this thread like ladies but straight away I relate that to being pervy/sleazy as that is what it is seen as in my local area. I think it all depends on the group in question to what they see as acceptable.

Guys here would be seen as either sex to me, same as mate.

When I was at uni my tutors just used to say ok everyone are you ready to start etc. I dont think anyone can really take offence to that.

Stewies - when I was doing my teacher training one of the male students was observed by an outside assessor and seriously pulled up on starting his lesson by saying "ladies and gentlemen".

that's interesting rainbow - dp works in a boys' school and was complimented on his calling them 'gentlemen' (as opposed to 'boys' I think).

I hate 'ladies' and'girls' (will hide most threads where OP starts with 'ladies...'), though don't mind 'ladies and gentlemen' strangely - perhaps it's context? guys is gender neutral for me but i would be careful using it. prefer 'folks' as others do

In the context of the question, it was a man describing an entirely female team as "the guys from accounts". It did seem quite weird and he was pulled up on it, but his response was "well would you prefer I called them dolls"

I use 'folks' and 'guys' to a group on an informal basis. EG walking into the office and stores and greeting everyone or saying tra ra to people. (see ya folks, have a good week end)

A group of male friends or work colleagues often get 'fella' ( Hi fella's, what's the story?)

A group of women friends or colleagues it tends to be hi, hi, hi ( then loads of kisses for some reason) Some mates say Hi chicks. No one is fussed tbh

Agree with Knit2tog

I just say "everyone"

Hate guys and folks

'Everyone' would do the job.

Guys, folks, peeps, people...they all grate imo.

Everyone is probably the least affected.

'Hi everyone'.

Considers switching.

How about using the word "women" to refer to women?

I would HATE to walk into a room of female colleagues and say 'Hello Women' sounds bloody awful as a greeting tbh.

I work with mostly under 30 year olds. Guys is pretty common nowadays. The managers tend to refer to the staff as Ladies as it tends to be all female apart from me.

I think it's fine. And to make an issue out of it with the person who said it was silly at best. Not sure why the shocked face, OP....