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From: kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca ("...Jose")
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: "Woman" or "Girl"?
Message-ID: <283958CC.21396@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 23 May 91 04:14:50 GMT
References: <1991May13.223727.8721@aero.org> <14909@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <1991May17.180807.20501@psych.toronto.edu>
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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.

	So sorry to burst your bubble, but many of us (young men, that
is) have a hard time adjusting to the use of "men" and "women" in
reference to ourselves and our peers.  I don't think of my male
friends as "men", but as "guys"... and I will generally refer to my
female friends as "girls" (using "guys", if addressing a group of any
gender mixture).  I make a point of using "women" when I'm able to
think before speaking, because I know that many women will find "girl"
disrespectful.... but "girl" is usually what I think.  It's all a
reflection of how one see's oneself, I should think.... and most of my
friends and I don't see ourselves as "men", a "man" being something
old and adult (we're in our early to late twenties, late in university
or early on in the real world).

	When I am referred to as a "man", it still strikes me as
slightly inconguous and occaisionally as almost snide and sacrastic.
I'm getting used to it, 'though... and at the same time I'm finding it
more and more natural to refer to my peers as "women" and "men".


--
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".sig quotes are dippy"|Kenneth C. Moyle          kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
 - Kenneth C. Moyle    |Department of Biochemistry     MOYLEK@MCMASTER.BITNET
                       |McMaster University       ...!uunet!mnetor!maccs!kenm