Saying "girl" is demeaning?

you people

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I don’t think all uses of “girl” to describe an adult woman are demeaning, but that one is a little, yeah. “Lady” or “woman” would be better.

This. I tend to take stuff in the spirit it’s intended. I recall watching one man chew out another for referring to me as a girl in a context that was clearly not mean-spirited or intended to demean, and I wasn’t remotely offended. But… the man was a senior VP at my company and I was still taking exams. Some women might have been offended in the same circumstance. So even though I wasn’t bothered, it was a risky word choice on his part. (Guy didn’t have a mean bone in his body… he was just excited during a card game.)

And context matters too. An “atta girl” when I played a key card revealing that he was going to win the game is pretty different from if the exact same person was discussing my work product in a professional setting.

Eh, I don’t know that it’s “quite often” misogynistic, but it certainly can be used in a misogynistic way.

Personally I think people who get upset over “hey guys” referring to a mixed-gender group are being overly sensitive. But it does seem to bother a few people.

I use “gang” to be safer. “Hey gang” doesn’t seem to bother anyone.

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Why dontcha just use y’all, there’s already a word for it

Trigger warning

Might offend those who don’t identify as people

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You lot?

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Definitely more demeaning than “girl”. :rofl:

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What the hell is wrong with you people?

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People skills goddammit

rita-moreno-hey-you-guys

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Never understood why people think " you guys" isn’t gender neutral at this point. Maybe because they’re from the south which already uses y’all? Girls used “guys” all the time, growing up, to address female only groups. Guy singular still seems to be male only and you’d use gal if you must, though woman is probably better.

Girl being demeaning - probably depends on the context and tone. If you’re a man and wouldn’t use boy in the same context, better not to.

Yup, I think this is a good rule of thumb. It’s gonna take some time to get used to, but worth the effort.

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When referring to my whole class I use “guys” - unless they are being particularly immature, in which case I use “children”

If I’m talking to a single gendered group I use “ladies” or “gentlemen”.

I almost never use gendered tends for groups. Of course, i always can’t remember the last time i addressed a group of just men or just women.

Misogynistic is a word that is getting devalued, along with a lot of other words like bigot or racist.

From Meriiam-Webster:

misogynistic

[adjective]

: feeling, showing, or characterized by hatred of or prejudice against women : of, relating to, or being a misogynist

if I say: “The girl at Burger King took my order,” how am a displaying a hatred or prejudice against women?

I can maybe understand the argument that it could be disrespectful, buy hardly misogynistic.

That’s not an especially misogynistic usage.

If you walked into Burger King and said “Girl, get me a damn Whopper!” then that would be considerably more misogynistic.

There are degrees of bigotry, racism, and misogynism.

Like with racism:
Serving the table of white customers before the table of black customers who were seated earlier is racism.

It’s nowhere near the same degree of racism as, say, burning them on a fiery cross KKK-style, but it’s racist all the same.