flaps@utcs.uucp (Alan J Rosenthal) (10/15/85)
>"C'mon guys and women, let's go have a beer" is absurd in the extreme.
How about "C'mon folks, let's go have a beer" or "C'mon, let's have a beer"?
If you look, there are always words to replace male-oriented words like "guys".
I like "folks" myself, but I'm sure that there are others.crs@lanl.ARPA (10/18/85)
>>"C'mon guys and women, let's go have a beer" is absurd in the extreme. > >How about "C'mon folks, let's go have a beer" or "C'mon, let's have a beer"? > >If you look, there are always words to replace male-oriented words like "guys". >I like "folks" myself, but I'm sure that there are others. Ahh! But you miss (or avoid) the point. The phrase "guys and women" was intentionally chosen to contrast the two words (I know because I wrote it). What if all the persons involved were women? Would you still say "C'mon folks, ..."? Would you say "C'mon women, ..."? -- All opinions are mine alone... Charlie Sorsby ...!{cmcl2,ihnp4,...}!lanl!crs crs@lanl.arpa
flaps@utcs.uucp (Alan J Rosenthal) (10/21/85)
In article <32065@lanl.ARPA> crs@lanl.ARPA writes: >>>"C'mon guys and women, let's go have a beer" is absurd in the extreme. >> >>How about "C'mon folks, let's go have a beer" or "C'mon, let's have a beer"? > >Ahh! But you miss (or avoid) the point. The phrase "guys and women" >was intentionally chosen to contrast the two words (I know because I >wrote it). What if all the persons involved were women? Would you >still say "C'mon folks, ..."? Would you say "C'mon women, ..."? I would say C'mon folks or just C'mon. This might be an answer to a slightly different question though, because I think it is bad to distinguish between genders casually in non-sexual situations. I think that as far as beer drinking goes women and men are the same, and I think that it is unnecessary and potentially harmful to emphasize gender in these circumstances. Can you think of a situation in which you would want to refer to gender where it would be awkward to say "women"? And may I point out, by the way, that things become less awkward through usage. This example probably differs regionally, but around here it is now quite usual to say "chairperson", where this word was originally awkward in the extreme. (by the way, I would like to point out that it is still usually better to choose non-awkward alternatives such as "chair", "fire fighter", "staff", "letter carrier".) Alan J Rosenthal {cbosgd|decvax!utzoo}!utcs!flaps