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Nope doesn't bother me at the least, that sounds more like a Liberal thing, poor little Snowflakes.
Interesting reaction.
I'm liberal, and I've always used 'guys'. To me, the person who objected to it sounds more like someone who thinks women should wear hats and gloves to attend church - in other words, more likely to be conservative.
I've never detected any sign of irritation when I called a group of women, "You guys". But if I'd called them, "You girls", I doubt if they would have liked that. Down South, they don't have that problem, because everyone is called, "You all" or "Y'all".
Yeah, I try to be careful about the "girls" moniker. My wife actually likes it but that's her.
I automatically say "you all", or "y'all" when addressing a group, or referring to a group to which an addressed individual belongs.
Those who don't customarily use "you all" often have difficulty understanding that last point. "You all" is never used to address an individual unless it refers to that individual's family, friends, or associates of some kind.
As in, "Are you all going to eat out on Thanksgiving?" Not, "I like the sweater you all are wearing."
"You guys" directed to a mixed group or group of women sounds grating to me, but I would never "correct" someone using this term in those situations. Both forms are comprehensible and functional - but "you all" seems more accurate and a little more gracious.
I live and grew up in the Upper South, where I regularly hear both forms, though one rarely heard "you guys" used in this manner during my younger days.
It's "y'all", not "ya'll", btw. It's a contraction of "you all", and the apostrophe goes after the y, to indicate the omitted letters (ou), not after the a.
At work I do add "and ladies" when someone is referring to my department or team as "gentlemen." I'm not offended per se, just more irked that they're using a word like "gentlemen" to refer to a mixed-gender department. We're not ALL men, and not all the men are gentlemen either!
I'm with dbones on this - I think it's different. 'You guys' has been considered gender neutral for forever. To exclude a female (or females) by referring only to the gentlemen seems passive-aggressive.
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