Asklemmy

43755 readers

2222 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

182

What is a gender neutral replacement for man, guys, buddy, etc? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

405 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I've realized that in conversations I'll use traditional terms for men as general terms for all genders, both singularly and for groups. I always mean it well, but I've been thinking that it's not as inclusive to women/trans people.

For example I would say:

"What's up guys?" "How's it going man?" "Good job, my dude!” etc.

Replacing these terms with person, people, etc sounds awkward. Y'all works but sounds very southern US (nowhere near where I am located) so it sounds out of place.

So what are some better options?

Edit: thanks for all the answers peoples, I appreciate the honest ones and some of the funny ones.

The simplest approach is to just drop the usage of guys, man, etc. Folks for groups and mate for singular appeal to me when I do want to add one in between friends.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Vosotros agrees.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ustedes if you're less formal or you live outside Spain 😁

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

if you're less formal

What a fun way to phrase that. You're not wrong but it's making me giggle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Or in German: euch

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm under the impression that you pronounce it the same way this cat looks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You know... that's about right.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

😂😂😂😂😂

[–] Resol 2 points 8 months ago

I still wonder why English (a Germanic language) doesn't have its own pronoun for the plural 2nd person like German (euch) or Dutch (jullie), I think it kinda helps with distinction between talking to one person and talking to multiple people.

The problem is... what pronoun should we choose? I think "yinz" would sound kinda cool, but nobody outside of a very specific spot in the US actually uses it (other than myself I guess).