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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Getting back to insults, why should men be insultable as "cunts," but women
can/are never vilified as "pricks"?

It's so "taboo" (to use an overworked term) that it nobody does it. (Or do
women say it covertly, beyond the ears of the guys?)

Moreover, according to a certain strand of feminist sociolinguistics, men
should be/secretly are pleased to be called "pricks" (and "dicks"),
especially by women, but women are rightly enraged to be called "cunts,"
especially by men.

The only practical solution to these glaring and unsupportable asymmetries
is a thorough overhaul of the language. You know, chopping things out and
retrofitting and so on.

I have occasionally heard an enraged woman call another both "bitch" and
"son of a bitch." But if "son of a bitch" flies (in a way that "prick"
doesn't), what about "mofo"?

 JL

On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 12:26 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

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> 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?
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> Rodney Dangerfield: <<When I drink, I don't know what I'm doin'. I was
> loaded one night, I went into a gay bar. Whew, it was ridiculous. It was
> fifteen guys for every guy.>>
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