Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway
From: b39y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Language formality (was Girls, ...)
Message-ID: <1990Oct11.121502.353@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 90 16:37:02 GMT
Lines: 39
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: zola.ics.uci.edu

To Barbara... (twain@???)

A 13-year old female is no more a woman than a 13-year old male is a
man.  The terms 'young woman' and 'young man' are probably the most
grating terms I have every heard used to describe teenagers (at least
I thought so when I was a teen :-) - The problem as I see it, and as
has been mentioned here before, I think, is that while there are two
formal (man and boy) and one informal (guy) terms that are commonly
accepted for males, there are only the two formal (woman and girl)
terms for females.  Therefore, in situations where informality is
required, people wind up saying such stupid sentences as:

	"So I was out with this guy and two women"

	Implying that the male (a guy) was somehow deserving of less
respect than the two females (women.)  Suppose for a moment that gal
didn't have the negative connotations that have been forced on it.
The converse of the above statement would be:

	"So I was out with this man and two gals"

	Equally stupid.  The point is that, unless the two women were
in formal gowns or business suits and the man in cutoffs and a
t-shirt, your choice of language is presupposing a level of
formality/informality which is just as wrong and the implications
present in the "man/girl" discussions.

	I'm not trying to harsh on people for wanting language to be
precise and informative, but it seems to me that the solution is
(easier said that done) to come up with three words that could be
universally accepted and start using them.  They would map to the
informal male ('guy'), the informal female ('gal') and the informal
group ('guys'.)  They should each be one syllable, and should be
similar-sounding (I think.)

	Constructive posts and replies are appreciated.

	Dave Rodger   B39Y@vax5.cornell.cit.edu
	A 20-year old boy who is desperately frightened at being called a man!