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Path: utzoo!utcs!flaps
From: flaps@utcs.uucp (Alan J Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: re guys, women, etc
Message-ID: <935@utcs.uucp>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 15:03:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcs.935
Posted: Mon Oct 21 15:03:37 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Oct-85 16:34:33 EDT
References: <20800017@ada-uts.UUCP> <918@utcs.uucp> <32065@lanl.ARPA>
Reply-To: flaps@utcs.UUCP (Alan J Rosenthal)
Organization: University of Toronto
Lines: 27
Summary: 

In article <32065@lanl.ARPA> crs@lanl.ARPA writes:
>>>"C'mon guys and women, let's go have a beer" is absurd in the extreme.
>> 
>>How about "C'mon folks, let's go have a beer" or "C'mon, let's have a beer"?
> 
>Ahh!  But you miss (or avoid) the point.  The phrase "guys and women"
>was intentionally chosen to contrast the two words (I know because I
>wrote it).  What if all the persons involved were women?  Would you
>still say "C'mon folks, ..."?  Would you say "C'mon women, ..."?

I would say C'mon folks or just C'mon.  This might be an answer to a slightly
different question though, because I think it is bad to distinguish between
genders casually in non-sexual situations.  I think that as far as beer
drinking goes women and men are the same, and I think that it is unnecessary
and potentially harmful to emphasize gender in these circumstances.

Can you think of a situation in which you would want to refer to gender where
it would be awkward to say "women"?  And may I point out, by the way, that
things become less awkward through usage.  This example probably differs
regionally, but around here it is now quite usual to say "chairperson", where
this word was originally awkward in the extreme.

(by the way, I would like to point out that it is still usually better to
choose non-awkward alternatives such as "chair", "fire fighter", "staff",
"letter carrier".)

Alan J Rosenthal			{cbosgd|decvax!utzoo}!utcs!flaps