Here is an excerpt from the Dear Annie section in the Omaha World Hearld from today's paper:
Dear Annie: You've printed a few letters from women who object to being called "you guys" in restaurants and other places. I feel just the opposite.I am one of four female electricians among 200 males. I absolutely hate it when someone comes in and says, "You guys and lady" because they are emphasizing my gender more than my presence already does. There aren't that many women in this field, so we don't need to be pointed out every time the boss wants to address us. In this field, it's more respectful of my position to be one of the "guys." Saginaw, Mich.
Dear Saginaw: In recent years, "you guys" has become gender-neutral, and we're sure many women feel such monikers mean the men consider them equals and valued for what they contribute to the job.
This is so relevant to our class! First, they are discussiong spotlighting, by saying they are pointing out women electricians as "lady". The topic of using "you guys" is interesting because it is so prevalent in our modern society. It is now common slang that our generation is not even phased by. I also used to work in position where I was the only woman in my department. Sometimes my boss would come in and say "ok you guys, um and gal" which made me feel akward. I understand that slang terms evolve over time and the term "you guys" now refers to "you all". I can think of a million terms that are completely different now than they were fifty years ago.
10 comments:
Interesting. I agree with the woman who wrote in. I think it is even more awkward when you're with a group of guys and someone addresses you.."okay guys...and girl." I think "guys" has become gender neutral also. Even when I'm with a group of girl friends, I find myself saying "guys." It's not that I'm calling them guys, but it's more of a collective group term.
I believe that the term "guys" has truly evolved into a gender neutral term over the last few years. This is very common with American language. Another example of this evolution can be seen with the term "gay". What once meant happy and joyful is now used to identify someone with their sexual preference.
From previous lectures we have learned that spotlighting creates a whole set of problems for an individual. I feel that the problems from spotlighting far outweigh the problems being called a gender neutral that was once a term used to identify men.
However, I feel that employees should express their identify preferences to their supervisor and that the supervisor should respect their requests.
While it is clear that spotlighting is an issue in this article I feel that the phrase "you guys" is still innappropriate when there is a mixed croud. It is more understandable in for instance the spanish language where the male form of a word is used for plural- whether it's gender neutral or not this is the way the entire language is organized. However, in the English language "guys" grammatically refers to men. While I agree with the woman in the article that it is unfair for her to be spotlighted I believe "you people" or "you all" is a much better way to speak to a mixed croud. I know I'm guilty of calling mixed groups "guys" but I believe that it gives the male gender more power when male terms dominate a mixed group.
I think the woman made a good point. For that particular situation I think it is inappropriate to single her out. If I were in her shoes I would feel extremely awkward and slightly disadvantaged. If you are already the minority I can understand how you would like to fit in with everyone else. Gender doesn’t need to be what separates you from the “guys”… your performance can. However, in other situations like at a restaurant I think it is inappropriate to approach a man and woman and group them under the term “guys”.
I can see how this woman would feel awkward by getting called out every time an announcement was made. She just wants to be considered one with the group and does not want to stand out. Having an emphasis on that she is the one woman would get really irritating and I don't know if I could handle working somewhere like that.
Because I don't think that it is right to always address a group of females and males as "you guys" I think they should say "you all" or "everyone." "You guys" is still just speaking to the guys in the group. While the person who wrote in would rather be considered one of the guys she may want to consider being addressed period.
I also agree that it would be uncomfortable to be singled out as the only "one" each time the group was referred to as a whole. I believe that it would certainly depend on your age and length at the position as to whether you could pull the boss aside and ask "him" not to single you out. I am assuming a female boss would be aware enough to know not to do this.
As far as not working in a place where you are the only person of a particular gender, you may not have that choice, perhaps your job is very gender oriented and there simply isn't a another place to go.
I used to wait tables and I tried to be careful with what I called people. I started out with "you guys" but changed it to "you all" to be more inclusive. It if it was a group of girls, despite their age, I usually referred to them as "ladies." If it was a couple, I usually said "you two." I was very aware of how I was typecasting people. I can see why the women who were in the minority in this story felt uncomfortable being pointed out exclusively.
This is a really great real-life example of what we’ve been talking about in class! I think the issue here is subjectivity. Obviously some people take more offense when you spotlight them, but at the same time they have to compete with the issues of tokenism, so it’s a real catch-22. I do agree with Annie that “you guys” has become a gender neutral term, but I would argue that it got to be that way because no one every contested it. Instead, we just let these gendered terms creep their way into our daily lives. Our society has adopted a more masculine ideology (one could always argue it’s been that way with the traditional patriarchy) but I think the most interesting aspect is that women are becoming more “masculine” in the sense that women have become bread-winners, there are increasing amounts of single mothers raising families, and overall women are becoming more independent. So in this sense I think the acceptance of this phrase also stems from the fact that more women are becoming comfortable filling these traditionally masculine roles. The interesting point though is while women are becoming more masculine, one could argue that men are becoming more feminine. We now see more men staying at home and being the primary caregivers, we see men who care more about their physical appearance and cleanliness (i.e. metrosexuality) and men are becoming more feminine in the way they disclose information. So is society in general becoming more gendered neutral? I would argue so. But then again the amount of violence against women hasn’t really changed that much, so what does that say? Are we truly bending the traditional views of gender?
I think this is a very interesting article because you discussed the issue of spotlighting the females in the male dominated job. Yet, I have an issue with this idea. Is it bad to be spotlighted as a female in a male dominated job? While I think it does designate that perhaps you are not part of the dominate or in group, it is not a part of your physicality that is easily changed. Therefore I think its hard for people in our society to not recognize this fact. Does spotlighting that someone is female in a male dominated job assert that they are also less competent?
Compared to other gendered phrases I don't find "you guys" that offensive. I tend to use it even when I'm referring to my girl friends. But, I do think it's interesting how these gendered phrases become a regular part of daily conversation.
I work at a resturant and often go up to tables and say how are you guys doing. Not because I think the famales look like males, but because of a lack of anything better to say. Everytime I say it I hope someone doesn't call me out on it because I wouldn't know what to say. Often I will go up to a table of all women and say how are you ladies doing and feel a lot better about this. It's an extremely touch situation and Im trying to break the habit.
Post a Comment