Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!aero-c!nadel From: evan@hplabs.hpl.hp.com (Evan Kirshenbaum) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: "Woman" or "Girl"? Message-ID: Date: 21 May 91 21:12:18 GMT References: <1991May13.223727.8721@aero.org> <14909@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <1991May17.180807.20501@psych.toronto.edu> Sender: news@hplabs.hpl.hp.com (placeholder for future) Organization: HP Labs Lines: 39 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org In-Reply-To: dsy@psych.toronto.edu's message of 17 May 91 18:08:07 GMT Status: R Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org In article <1991May17.180807.20501@psych.toronto.edu> dsy@psych.toronto.edu (Desiree Sy) writes: > I can understand some of the ambivalent feelings young women have > in being called "women", since as a teenager I felt much the same > way (After all, being teenaged means you are sitting on the > border btwn adulthood and childhood). > > However, have you *ever* heard similar thoughts being expressed > by young men who are referred to as "men" immediately upon > entering the workforce? I haven't. > > I find this discrepancy (which I observe in myself, too) very > disturbing. > I would expect that most males entering the workforce feel extremely uncomfortable being referred to as "men". I know I was (and to some extent still am---I'm 26). I tend to break the world up into People substantially younger than I am People substantially older than I am People substantially my age. The first group I call "boys" and "girls". The second group are "men" and "women". The third group is more problematic. I use "guys" for groups and for individual males, but there is no good word for individual females or for "specifically female groups" (such as sports teams or when using gender to contrast between groups). My father, who also grew up in Chicago, tends to use "gals", but this was never part of my dialect. Up through college, I tended to use "girls". Lately, I find myself using "women" more often. I suppose that this may have something to do with my being more comfortable with being called a "man". Evan Kirshenbaum HP Laboratories 3500 Deer Creek Road, Building 26U Palo Alto, CA 94304 kirshenbaum@hplabs.hp.com (415)857-7572