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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]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Dudes is fine - folks and yall also work. I use yall all the time even though I'm now in Canada and have never lived in the US south.

Guys, I think, is still a bit too gender associated but it's borderline. Man is often used in a gender neutral manner but it is very easy to misinterpret and a transwoman could reasonably assume you're trying to troll them.

You've also got fella and feller, I think the latter one is more gender neutral than the former.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

What I use is y'all or folks for plural, and dude for singular.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The south is objectively better than the rest of the USA (from my experience as foreigner). Just go with y'all.

Also I use dude with my NB friend pretty habitually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Esteemed personages.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I worked at a restaurant in Ohio in the early 2000s. Had a group of ladies come in once, probably in their 50s. Got super offended when I gave the standard "hi guys!" greeting. However, where I grew up, that had become a gender neutral greeting.

If you want to remove gendered pronouns entirely, "y'all" is what I would go with. I think the UK frequently uses "you lot", but that probably does not sound great to most in the US. I suppose "folks" is one that might work, but seems to rub some people the wrong way.

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

Is this bait?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Why are you trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist? Linguistics don't care about genders in biological sense.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

amigo

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