[Ads-l] fines for saying "you guys" to mixed groups?

[Galen Buttitta]

Mr. Gray, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

Quite frankly I think the jar thing is ridiculous. I'd argue that "you guys" either already is or is on its way to turning into a semantically-bleached phrase, with no real implications for whether its referents are men or not.

> On Jun 11, 2015, at 19:28, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fines for saying "you guys" to mixed groups?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 6:46 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg <
> nunberg at ischool.berkeley.edu> quoted:
> 
>> "We didn't invent the idea, though I'm not sure where we first heard about
>> it," reads the company's explanation on Tumblr. "But the idea is: if you
>> believe that using the word 'guys' to describe a mixed-gender group of
>> individuals is creeping sexism, and are trying to eliminate that word from
>> your casual use, you put a dollar in the jar every time you do it
>> accidentally."
> 
> What if you don't believe that using the word "guys" to describe a
> mixed-gender group of individuals is creeping sexism, and are not trying to
> eliminate that word from your casual use?
> 
> What do you do every time that you do it on purpose?
> 
> Will "y'all"/"you"/"you-all" be included, if there are women in the group
> whose birth-language is a Semitic - or should that be "Semetic"? - language?
> 
> Will the "nigger" excuse be allowed into play?
> 
> When I use "you guys," Mary, I don't intend it to reference well-educated,
> job-holding, classy woman-Americans like you, of course. I apply it only to
> unmarried mothers, bag-ladies, school-teachers, welfare-queens, and other
> such embarrassments to your gender. You'll agree with me on that, I'm sure.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
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