good day, humans.
i read guys as gender neutral.
Guys is very context and nonverbals dependent.
If someone standing in front of a group that is well mixed – not heavily weighted toward one gender, and they say, “Hi guys.” I think it will be taken by most people as gender neutral.
But it can very clearly and obviously be gendered in slightly different circumstances. In the context of discussing something, if the speaker says, “I’d like to hear from the guys.”. That is clearly a gendered reference.
If the statement is, “I’d like to hear what you guys think,” it might be gendered or not, depending on whether the word “guys” is emphasized or not, and perhaps whether the content is gendered, and whether non-males have been speaking.
Sidetrack, but as for complete gender neutrality, do you know any women named “Guy”? Guia, Guida, etc. may be real Italian names, but do any of them go by “Guy”?
I would love to work there.
I’m 69, and “guys” has pretty much always been ungendered for me. But I grew up in SoCal, and we tend to be a less formal than other parts of the country.
I’m close to 60 and I think of and use “guys” mostly in a gender neutral fashion depending on the context. But it is slightly off putting that all of the terms that have migrated from gender specific to gender neutral are originally masculine. Can anyone point to a feminine term that is now gender neutral?
The perfectly horrible example that comes to mind is ‘bitches.’
Nah, that’s not gender neutral. It can be used against more than one gender, but it’s a different insult when used against men than when used against women. The insult for men is that they are being called women.
It really is changing in the vernacular:
Most of us don’t really live in a formal work culture any more. I mean, we call everyone by their given names. I still feel weird about addressing someone significiantly senior or older than me without “Mr.” or “Ms.” but it’s not socially acceptable to be so formal.
I would also be very surprised to hear someone say something like that at work, unless the topic was specifically centered on gender issues.
As I said above, I’m in my 50s and “guys” has always been ungendered for me. And I grew up in the Midwest.
I can’t think of one, but “girl” originally was a non-gendered term.
Sure, but the point is that the term can be obviously and clearly gendered depending on context, and can be ambiguous. I don’t think it’s accurate for anyone to say that it’s gender neutral across the board, unless they are nonnative speakers or otherwise for some reason are ignorant of some of the term’s meanings.
It can have gendered or non-gendered meanings, but for native/fluent speakers I would say it’s very unlikely to be ambiguous.
So most here, like me, consider it to be okay to address a group of men and women as you guys. Cool.
I asked @Daughter_of_Bullitt, in her mid-30s now, since she is in the HR field and recently completed a Masters degree.
Her reply:
I’ve been talking with some friends and other professionals about this lately as well, and it’s getting more complicated especially because it’s not just about being inclusive for women, but also for trans or non-binary individuals as well, and we don’t always know when we are being inclusive or exclusive. For instance, you couldn’t necessarily assume you are just sitting with a group of only women simply by the way they all “look” or based on their names.
I agree in that I don’t think “guys” is considered gender neutral anymore. I haven’t heard much of folks using “people”, though potentially in some contexts it would be more fitting than others; it sounds fairly on the formal side? Almost maybe a little impersonal? In my bigger communications I’ll usually say “everyone”/“all”. Or casually, “y’all” and “folks” have been my usual go-to’s. Sometimes you could even say “group” or “team”, depending on the context.
I’m in the middle of taking a diversity, equity, and inclusion online certification course. If they provide additional suggestions, I’ll let you know!
Hmmm, interesting…
Thanks to you and your daughter for that. You guys rock 
Whenever I hear someone address a group as “people,” I always flashback to that old TV show “Square Pegs” – Jami Gertz.
So how did this change? How does gender neutral change to gender specific over time?
In this thread there are indications that ‘guys’ wasn’t universally considered gender neutral in the past so the change may only be a slight shift over the line. And perhaps it was regional usage or different sub-cultures.
I always think of Full House. Unless I’m conflating it with something else, as I recall “Hi, people!”/“Bye, people!” was one of Michelle Tanner’s many catchphrases.