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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now how would you know what's going on with a word's unconscious halo?

It only applies to Bible words anyway.

JL

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 2:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: fines for saying "you guys" to mixed groups?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm pretty sure nobody addressing a group of males (typically in a =
> military context) as girls (or with an equally gendered but more loaded =
> expression; cf. e.g. OED s.v. "cunt", 3) would be considered "imbuing =
> the word=E2=80=99s unconscious halo with the positive aura associated =
> with being [fe]male in our society".
>
> LH
>
> > On Jun 12, 2015, at 2:11 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >=20
> > Reflecting back on a misguided youth, there were several contexts in =
> which
> > a group of males were addressed as <girls>, by coaches and drill =
> sergeants,
> > clearly as a goad to more macho performance. But I can see this as a
> > starting point for a more evolved neutering of the conundrum. Just as
> > certain publications insist on a balanced third person gender =
> distribution
> > (he/she), we can sometimes address plural groups as <you guys> and =
> other
> > times as <you girls>. What do you girls think of this idea?
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandialect.=
> org&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
> xPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DU5Sdt-Vu3pvGJj8rbaEShXPsBcq3bOHeVEFsswsNGHc&s=3DeSsjvO=
> Krkt_JvM_a8US5ODNCY1sjA1xRmB2m0inVujQ&e=3D=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org