Words will kill us all

[majes]

I've seen the future; what ultimately tears us all apart isn't racism or sexism or classism. No, no, no. It ends up being word-choice-ism.

Anyhugh, you choose - between the two options, which would you use - guys or folks - in these statements?

Poll Folks or Guys?

Comments

[hrafn]

I am trying to purge "guys" from my word usage when referring to mixed gender, or only female, groups of people. I have similar issues with "Dude," as much as I liked the word and have no really good alternative.

[majes]

Yes; the same for me. Folks is alright, but its not quite it for me either. That said, it is the word I use now.

[majes]

Yes; my word of choice as well when dealing with my community and coworkers.

[treacle_well]

I tend to say folks when I'm speaking in the third person. For example, at work I'm somewhat likely to refer to a group of people in a particular department as the "whateverdepartment folks."

When speaking in the second person, as in your poll examples, I'm more likely to use "guys" but I'd be unlikely to use it at all in work contexts--just in personal, casual conversation.

Also, if you'd given us multiple options I would have selected both "folks" and "guys" on item 2. "Guys" is a bit more likely, but folks is a real possibility for that one.

[majes]

Yeah; there are situations were I have heard myself say "Guys" where I would have most typically said "Folks." In the above examples, I can more easily hear guys in them, but that is probably because that is how the source sentences actually went.

[the_xtina]

Also, using "folks" as the plural form of "folk" is just deeply weird.  ("Folk" as the plural form is an accepted variant.)

[beowabbit]

I don’t use either, but “guys” would sound less odd than “folks”.

As far as gender goes, once upon a time “poet” was considered unambiguously male, and if you were talking about a woman who wrote poetry, people would have considered it incorrect if you called her a poet rather than a poetess. I’m not saying there are no problems with using “guys” in a gender-neutral way, but there is precedent, and if I had to guess I’d put better than even odds that in twenty years or so it will be unremarkable to refer to women as “guys”. (That said, the gender issues are part of why I don’t like the word. Another part is that it just sounds funny to me.)