Tentacruel Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 For example, would it be okay to say "guys' while referring to a group of men and women, or would it not? Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 They do it in Spanish all the time. For example, if you are talking about male [i]and[/i] female cousins, you'd say [i]primos[/i], while if you are talking about [b]only[/b] female cousins, it'd be [i]primas[/i]. If you are one of those feminist people that doesn't want the masculine form to be used for a group with guys and girls, get off your lazy ass and go make up a word. And see how many people laugh at you for being utterly retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yang Xiao-Long Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Well guys, let's see what happens when I call this girl a dude. "Hey dude!" *shot* Latin does it where it could have either a masculine or feminine ending, yet have a neuter gender. You also have feminine endings for a few masculine words, but I don't recall seeing masculine endings for feminine words. Unless you go plural to talk about a group of males and females as a whole, you'd be saying genders all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Starrk Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 I say this all the time and yet everyone I say it to doesn't care. I think its an ok term to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinitus Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Sure. Most people do it all the time without thinking about it anyway. I'm sure everyone has used the term "mankind" before. Oh, and if you did make up a word, it may not necessarily be used alot. For example, there was a woman who got the word "miz" into the dictionary as a title for women regardless of marriage status, because men had a title that didn't recognize marriage status. To this day I see it nowhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icy Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 For conversational purposes, the male terms is almost always used as the gender default. In those cases it has no gender meaning, but acts more like a name placement. So yeah... To an extent of course it is. However, honor the respect of those around you and if they ask you to use something else, do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Βyakuya Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 I don't care. If the Spanish language would call a croup of boys and girls[i] ninos[/i], or cousins[i] primos[/i], etc., then I guess guys can fit it. Doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~/Coolio Prime\~ Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 I generally use the male terms as a unisexual one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flinsbon Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 On my english paper i wrote "his or her" a few times and my feminist teacher told me "his" is fine. Also, many languages refer to males and females together as a male group. Also, idk what girls think cause im a guy, but if i were a girl and someone called to me and my friends using "girls" i would take it as a bit of an insult because they'd be pointing out that we're girls rather than just people. idk if any girls think this way - just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mehmani Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Seeing as all romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) use the masculine plural to describe a group contain both sexes, I can't see a problem with it. To criticize it would be over-zealous and idiotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Gamesmaster Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Depends on the context: "Guys" is fine; "Actors" is okay; "Waiters" is bad; "Stewardesses" is right out. As an author, though, I'd like to see more gender-neutral plurals. It gets irritating to see such masculine dominance in the core of language, and more to the point, it makes things a hell of a lot easier when it comes to masking genders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt. Colonel Remo Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 [quote name='Mikhail Nekem'evič Tal' timestamp='1304372277' post='5184481'] Seeing as all romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) use the masculine plural to describe a group contain both sexes, I can't see a problem with it. To criticize it would be over-zealous and idiotic. [/quote] Actually Arabic does the same. So I'll go out on a limb here and say all semetic languages do it as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tentacruel Posted May 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 [quote name='Supreme Gamesmaster' timestamp='1304374509' post='5184550'] Depends on the context: "Guys" is fine; "Actors" is okay; "Waiters" is bad; "Stewardesses" is right out. As an author, though, I'd like to see more gender-neutral plurals. It gets irritating to see such masculine dominance in the core of language, and more to the point, it makes things a hell of a lot easier when it comes to masking genders. [/quote] I fail to see how Actors and Waiters are any different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ярополк Пономарёв Posted May 3, 2011 Report Share Posted May 3, 2011 I know Japanese allows for -kun to be used as a suffix to male and female names, but it's a little uncommon. I think they use -kan for females, but I forget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Half Vamp Riku Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 [quote name='Lance Corporal Atlas' timestamp='1304302489' post='5183202'] I generally use the male terms as a unisexual one. [/quote] This^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Force_Flex Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 French does the same thing as Spanish. Come to think of it, I think all Romance languages do. I don't see it as a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Max Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 I use the word "peeps" when talking to a group. Problem is i'm often Gender Confused with some members here so I screw up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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