I tend to prefer women. “Girls” often feels a bit demeaning, especially when contrasted with “men” or “guys”.
“Females” sounds like somebody’s trying to lend their remark a little too much apparently-biological weight.
I like gender-neutral pronouns when they’re handy, for people who want them, or for the generic case. I used to be a bit mixed on which one sounded good for just general conversation, but after reading the Eclipse Phase RPG I pretty much stopped having any sympathy for the idea that “singular they” is awkward. It flows very well for me and sounds quite natural, and it’s a common term in English so there’s no trouble with inflecting it.
what do you use for the third-person-singular-neuter?
I tend to prefer women. “Girls” often feels a bit demeaning, especially when contrasted with “men” or “guys”.
It’s problematic that there isn’t really an age-indeterminate female pronoun to act as a counterpart to “guys,” since a not-insignificant fraction of our members are still in their teens.
Only when it’s used at all, which is far less often than ‘guys’. Yes, it’s true that it’s a distaff counterpart to ‘guys’, but so is ‘dolls’, and would you seriously propose unironic usage of ‘dolls’?
I tend to prefer women. “Girls” often feels a bit demeaning, especially when contrasted with “men” or “guys”.
“Females” sounds like somebody’s trying to lend their remark a little too much apparently-biological weight.
I like gender-neutral pronouns when they’re handy, for people who want them, or for the generic case. I used to be a bit mixed on which one sounded good for just general conversation, but after reading the Eclipse Phase RPG I pretty much stopped having any sympathy for the idea that “singular they” is awkward. It flows very well for me and sounds quite natural, and it’s a common term in English so there’s no trouble with inflecting it.
They, them, their.
It’s problematic that there isn’t really an age-indeterminate female pronoun to act as a counterpart to “guys,” since a not-insignificant fraction of our members are still in their teens.
What about ‘gals’? While it’s technically just a form of “girls”, it’s used contextually similarly to “guys”.
Only when it’s used at all, which is far less often than ‘guys’. Yes, it’s true that it’s a distaff counterpart to ‘guys’, but so is ‘dolls’, and would you seriously propose unironic usage of ‘dolls’?
I suppose that is indeed a word that exists. Having grown up in the Northeastern U.S., it’s not really part of my active vocabulary.