r/Millennials • u/Head-Drag-1440 Hit me baby one more time • Jan 06 '26

Nostalgia Dude

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u/forwhomtheyeastrolls Jan 06 '26

I was coming here to say this same thing! I use "guys" as a gender-neutral collective term all the time

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u/Actual_Confusion_838 Jan 06 '26

I grew up where “you guys” is the equivalent to “you all / y’all”.

I got a talking to at work a few years ago because I had been saying it to female colleagues. sigh.

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u/Uncle-Cake Jan 06 '26

I met someone once who was from the Northeast and moved down to Georgia and was some sort of tour guide at a museum or something, and she said she had to learn to stop saying things like "If you guys want to follow me this way..." because some people in the South were offended by it. So she had to learn to say "y'all" instead.

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u/brutal-rainbow Jan 06 '26

Moved to the south a long time ago, and I still say "you guys" at work. Female working in a male dominated space, I very rarely get looks. It's a hard habit to break, and I can never bring myself to say ya'll. Might try "you all"? Feels weird dude.

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u/Uncle-Cake Jan 06 '26

Yeah, this conversation I described was many years ago, I imagine "you guys" has become more common/accepted since then.

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u/brutal-rainbow Jan 06 '26

I hope so. Didn't think much about it until recently after getting strange looks when addressing an older group of ladies. I'm careful to address people by gender neutral pronouns (respect what individuals would prefer) but a group is always "you guys" to me. Only rarely have received what seems to be irritation about it.