Is calling 'people' 'folk' part of gender ideology rewriting language norms or is it separate?

[Gofastboatsmojito]

I've noticed this a lot in the last couple of years, it seems much more common in articles broadly on board with GI, pronouns, using the word Queer to describe anyone not achingly boring.

I've also noticed it coming out the mouths of my friends who are more TWAW inclined.

The word 'people' doesn't seem to have explicit links with biological realism or gender critical beliefs but it seems out of fashion in some circles.

Is this coincidence and more related to younger trendier language (!) or is it chosen for a reason?

Sorry if my dyslexia confused you. Ableist much?

I think I read something in the guidance for education on the gender topics being looked at currently (well before the election anyhow) about how that would be stopping and teacher should not be worried about using the wrong terms.

It rhymes with yolk

This thread is really interesting and chimes with what I've noticed. But it got me wondering... I've always thought folk was plural (being a synonym for people - you wouldn't ever refer to a single folk). Is the s in the end an Americanism?

I’m not sure, but I’ve noticed it too and find it incredibly annoying. I know there are people who have used it since forever (as in the saying nowt queer as folk) but when people on twitter use it it’s jarring. There are several of these that I find very odd, and am not sure why they have become popular. I think Obama maybe sparked the resurgence of the use of “folk”. The other one I’ve noticed is “black and brown bodies” to refer to people of colour, also referring “spaces” all the time. Y’all, as in teens not from southern states of the US saying “so tired y’all” is another one I find hard to accept as authentic.
Im sure it’s just a trend like most things but would like to learn more.

There was this Lancet cover, too, and for a while I was also seeing a lot of stuff that referred to "black birthing bodies".

I'm sure there's some rationale behind it, and an explanation for why it's better to discuss discrimination and harm perpetrated against bodies than people. Maybe some kind of Cartesian dualism based theory about the people we are not being exactly the same thing as the bodies we're in, or something along those lines. But as I haven't been offered the explanation, it just hits me as horrifically dehumanising.

Same here.

In NW England . And everyone has heard of folks tails and 'that's all folks' so we know what it means but I've never ever heard a person use that word

“Folk” I only really see Americans using it online, and I find it twee but harmless. Makes me think of “folksy”, and Southerners (“how’re all you folks doing?”)

Folx I agree is an abomination. It’s also rapidly falling out of favour (as with Latinx and BAME) as a bit try-hard.

It had all but died out in the UK but fashionable Leftists have re-imported it from America. There are examples of other words that completely died out here but are spoken in the USA like ‘fall’ for autumn.

Please send an intentional mistake.. hello forks or hello foxes

my dad used folks continually in the 70s 80s 90s, early 00’s

I've always heard it used in the context of something a bit mystical - as in a tale from folklore. We wouldn’t use that phrase “nowt as queer as folk” but to me listening to that phrase you are hinting that the person you are describing is one of the fairy folk.

emeraldisle.ie/the-fairy-folk

As pps have said, folks is normal in Scotland and has been forever

I’m from Yorkshire, so it’s a familiar word, I don’t wish to stop using it.

It does seem to have come from the US use, so there’s people using it like they use words like bathroom for toilet, garbage for rubbish and so on. I like colloquial words. They feel like part of the history of our region.

I wouldn’t necessarily write it on an internet forum, just as I wouldn’t write tha’ rather than you, although I speak like that sometimes.

I like local dialects and I think it’s important we keep them alive.

As a previous poster has said, they way it’s used now, by people who have adopted this rather than been raised with these words I a separate thing.

Sounds really American to me.

I find it really frustrating on Twitter as it has definitely been taken over by the so called “queer community” there.

There are times I would love to replace the word “people” for something shorter due to the strict constraints on the number of characters, but I never do because of the connotations.

In real life, living in Scotland, it’s always been widely used.

Surely 'folks/folx' in a gender context is driven explicitly by American usage - as is 'y'all', which now crops up all over the place in UK-based contexts and is most certainly not an English expression.

US presidents often talk about folks. I think they think it will make them seem more relatable.

People often seem to use the word online when explaining about how to validate LGBTQ+ community - i've always interpreted it as a bit exclusionary and patronising. Sort of 'we are all folks together and you're just an idiot bigot Karen who needs things spelled out for them'.

I've got nothing against the LGBTQ+ community but don't think this prickly chippiness does them any favours.

Also, I'm from Scotland where folk is used all the time.

I've literally just been standing in a queue of about 10 folk outside Boots waiting for it to open.

Folk is a plural term though - I've never heard Scottish people talk about folks.

Of course 'Folk' was and is used in the north and west of insular Europe and got to America from Ulster with the 'Scots-Irish' who were such a significant influence, particularly in the ever-shifting physical frontier lands.

Folk music, the disciplines of folk life and folk lore studies have been around for over a century, as has the shadow 'discipline' that gets called 'fake lore'). But this current usage is slightly different - as I said upthread, it seems to shadow the idea of the 'chosen family' - whose most important feature is that it is not a family.

I find cringe as an adverb really cringy.

Are sick of people policing the third person pronouns folks use about them?

I've definitely noticed the connection and also the use of 'kiddo' instead of child.

I noticed the use of "folks" and "folk" a lot in TRA contexts a while ago and pondered this.

I live in the North of England but don't really hear it in everyday use - I associate it more with my southern grandmother if spoken.
However online it does seem to be a word that's been imported back from the US and used in certain activist contexts.

I don't think there's anything sinister in it's meaning specifically, but it's widespread use in this context does irritate me - it sounds like such a twee, friendly word, then usually followed by some absolute dangerous twaddle. It's part of the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing (or should that be ewe's clothing?) faux-reasonable presentation of TRAs.

I have lived in various different places in the U.K. and folk is common in some areas.
I have only seen folx written down so now after pronunciation research on Youtube I can conclude folx is not foll-ux like bollocks, as I previously thought. The x seems to change the sound of the o so, in my accent, you get:

folk like bloke
folx like sulks

This seems an apt way of remembering.