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

[Jonathan Lighter]

On the one hand, the media imply at every turn that nothing is more
desirable than to be glamorously ultra-sexy - perhaps especially if you're
a woman. Unless I'm misinformed, most Americans (and British, Japanese,
etc.) public agrees wholeheartedly

On the other hand, over-educated, uptight New-Age Prescriptivists insist
that unisex is the only civilized way for the language to go - and in every
detail.  Some may recall the phrase used in "The Story of English":  "Chop
sexism out of the language." (Ouch!) One lapse and you pay.

They insist too that nouns and pronouns have essential and restrictive
gender references that cannot be altered, even by the general usage of both
sexes (oops! I mean "all genders"). Many of them want us to use fantastical
new pronouns of their own devising - up to the alleged 50 different choices
on FaceBook.

But never use a singular "they"! It's ungrammatical!

JL

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 2:11 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fines for saying "you guys" to mixed groups?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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