Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!aero-c!nadel
From: fg7@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Farshid Guilak)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: "Woman" or "Girl"?
Message-ID: <1991May15.192942.29685@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 15 May 91 19:29:42 GMT
Sender: news@aero.org
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 27
Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Status: R
Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org

In article <MLM.91May14031426@hector.cs.brown.edu> mlm@cs.brown.edu writes:
>
>In article <1991May13.223727.8721@aero.org> NRILEY@BOOTES.UNM.EDU (Natalie Riley Osorio) writes:
>
>   From: NRILEY@BOOTES.UNM.EDU (Natalie Riley Osorio)
>   Date: 10 May 91 07:00:00 GMT
>
>   [...] I admitted to him that at times I feel uncomfortable being
>   called a "woman" (I'm 20) and also in calling other people my age
>   "women" and "men" (although I do).  Furthermore, I don't feel
>   belittled by being called a "girl." 
>
>The problem, as I see it, is that in English there is no word in
>common use that "fits" between "boy" and "man" (or "girl" and
>"woman").  A teenager is too old to be a boy/girl, but not old enough
>to be a man/woman.


My friends and I had this discussion at work a few years ago.  "Guys"
is used to refer to the males at work in their mid-twenties, but who
would ever use "Gals" or "Dolls"???  We end up using guys to refer to
everybody now, i.e., "Do you guys want to go to lunch...", or use
"Ladies".

It still doesn't sound right to me.  Any suggestions?

Farsh