Honestly a lot of them start out as or still contextually imply “males” in the US, but can be used gender neutrally as well now too. Like “how you guys doing” vs “hanging out with the guys.”
It’s interesting isn’t it? “Guys” can include women, and can even be a group of only women, but you can’t talk about a single woman as a guy - “I snogged this gorgeous guy last night”.
Using “guys” for a group of only women works only in 2nd person. You can say “I love you guys!” to a group of women, but you can’t say “I was hanging out with the guys” when talking about the same group.
Meanwhile: males, dudes, guys, homies, fellas, bois, bros, lads, laddie, mates, geezers, chaps, gents, boss, hoss, cheif, buddy, pal, son, sonny, sonny boy, muchacho, hombre, old timer, Mac, Joe…
“Yeah what’s up?”
I don’t think we need to cancel Guys and Dolls just yet.
I love that half of these are fully gender neutral terms of endearment in Australia 😂
Honestly a lot of them start out as or still contextually imply “males” in the US, but can be used gender neutrally as well now too. Like “how you guys doing” vs “hanging out with the guys.”
It’s interesting isn’t it? “Guys” can include women, and can even be a group of only women, but you can’t talk about a single woman as a guy - “I snogged this gorgeous guy last night”.
Using “guys” for a group of only women works only in 2nd person. You can say “I love you guys!” to a group of women, but you can’t say “I was hanging out with the guys” when talking about the same group.