My aunt (89 years old) still uses that expression…but when she says “the girls came over to play bridge” and I say, “how long did you guys play?” she doesn’t blink an eye.
The word “guys” is most certainly “uni-sex”, assuming anyone uses, or knows, that expression anymore.
Kinda like the whole Miss/Ma’am thing?
I almost always use guys. I occasionally use ladies but only in a fake suave way. I (♂) have only received one complaint ever about how I addressed the female sex. I called a couple of them girls and one objected. I then repeated my sentence but with gals instead of girls and she said girls was fine.
But another word … How about a common female name? “When will you and the susans be back?”
I often use ‘you go, girl’ in m9xed sex business meetings to one of the males. i['ve never done addressed one of the women that way
Carlyjay, your story reminded me of something similar from my past restaurant days.
We had a couple in their fifties who were regular customers. The wife was a (seemingly) perpetually angry, hateful woman who would snap viciously if you faltered at providing anything in her long list of special requests; the husband seemed affable enough, but never spoke, instead just shrugging with a sheepish expression while his better half did the ordering and subsequent complaining.
After I waited on them a few times and memorized all their quirks, they didn’t bother me and I even found the woman’s seething rage kind of amusing, although I really pitied the poor husband. I dubbed her the “Lemon Wedge Lady” because of a previous incident where she’d demanded lemon wedges for her iced tea rather than slices, snarling “and if you don’t know what wedges are just bring me a lemon and a knife and I’ll do it myself!”
Anyway, one night my manager—a big, friendly Italian guy whom most of the customers loved—came to me shaking his head after having delivered food to their table. Evidently he’d had the temerity to ask “can I get you guys anything else?” to which the Lemon Wedge Lady hissed “EXCUSE ME, but I do not appreciate being referred to as you guys,” as she began stabbing angrily at her plate.
I guess it has to do with specific bugs up specific asses, but yes, I’ve found that there are women who find it offensive. Or at least one very, very angry woman.
I say “guys”. Especially during our co-ed ball hockey games. I think of the term as similar to the Spanish ellos. But I wouldn’t call a group of guys “girls”, either.
Some people argue this is sexist, and not at all gender-neutral as some on this thread have said. The argument for this is to point out that it is, by the lights of those who defend using “guys” to denote females, not okay to use “girls” or “gals” to denote males. This seems arguably to indicate that masculinity is privileged. (Sure we can all be equals–as long as we’re all men.)
I’m not one of the people who so argue.
-FrL-