Hey guys!

This is going to be a bit of a rant and will absolutely use some strong language. The Atlantic in 2018 had a piece on the question, if the term "guys" when used to address a group of people is gender neutral or not. Sadly this article is behind a paywall, but some people mey know how to read it anyway *cough*.

The author goes at length through all the liguistic and historical pros and cons, quoting a decent amount of specialists on the topic. Let me just summarize, that he did not come to a definitive answer.

I don't want to cook up all these arguments for both interpretations, mainly because they are disgustingly academic and in this very personal affair I don't give a shit on any academic deduction on the legitimacy of any claim.

I don't like being addressed with "hey guys". No, that's not true, I hate it. I hate it so much that I will interrupt anyone using it to address me. I'm not a guy, I've been mistaken as a guy for the largest part of my life and now it makes me nearly throw up, when someone uses it. I don't care if someone thinks it's okay to use it. As soon as I tell them not to they should avoid it. And if they don't this only shows disrespect of other people. And then I'm done with them. It's that easy.

Well, it's not as easy as that in professional settings. But also there I will not stop to interrupt people using it, if I have the opportunity. And if I want to bring up the topic more low-key I will talk to them one one one. I know this is scary for a lot of people. And I also don't like to do it. But I'm just fed up.

And this is not a transgender sensitivity. Have you ever asked a larger group of cis women, if they are okay with being greeted with "hi guys"? No? I have. And the answer was, that quite a large percentage of them does not like it. Why they don't say soething? They gave up! They just gave up on the proliferating stubbornness of the guys users.

What really makes me angry are cis women and trans people using it in YouTube and other social media content. They should know better. They should have at least a decent amount of empathy to sense that they are using non-inclusive language.

I said I'm not going into detail about the pros and cons. Just one small thing: if a man uses it and claims that the plural is gender neutral, just ask them, with how many guys they had a relationship. You also can ask about sex with guys, but talking about relationships might be a bit easier 😅