this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024

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What is a gender neutral replacement for man, guys, buddy, etc? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I've realized that in conversations I'll use traditional terms for men as general terms for all genders, both singularly and for groups. I always mean it well, but I've been thinking that it's not as inclusive to women/trans people.

For example I would say:

"What's up guys?" "How's it going man?" "Good job, my dude!” etc.

Replacing these terms with person, people, etc sounds awkward. Y'all works but sounds very southern US (nowhere near where I am located) so it sounds out of place.

So what are some better options?

Edit: thanks for all the answers peoples, I appreciate the honest ones and some of the funny ones.

The simplest approach is to just drop the usage of guys, man, etc. Folks for groups and mate for singular appeal to me when I do want to add one in between friends.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

What I use is y'all or folks for plural, and dude for singular.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The south is objectively better than the rest of the USA (from my experience as foreigner). Just go with y'all.

Also I use dude with my NB friend pretty habitually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I typically go with something like, "howdy, folks".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is this bait?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I've never had an issue with y'all and "dude/dudes" in gender neutral ways. They're the natural words I grew up with. On rare occasions, somebody doesn't prefer "dude" and I'll use different terms for them and around them.

In professional settings such as work email, I tend to use the more formal gender-neutral terms like "people" and "everybody" and "they/them", but I'm also in a region where "y'all" is accepted in formal conversation, so I often use that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Esteemed personages.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm just going out on a limb to remind people it's totally ok to say sup man to legit anyone. People that care about that stuff are people you can choose to change it for if you want to be around that type of person.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Why are you trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist? Linguistics don't care about genders in biological sense.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

Fellas

edit: please correct me if you believe I am wrong, I am open to discussion.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

amigo

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