A video from NowThis News claims that referring to women as "guys" is sexist and offensive, as it excludes them and only addresses men. The speaker argues that this term is part of a "gender hierarchy" that marginalizes women. However, the author of the text strongly disagrees with this argument, stating that the term "guys" is commonly used to refer to people of any gender and that its meaning has evolved over time. The author also points out that the video's suggestions for alternative greetings, such as "sentient life-forms" or "entities," are ridiculous and that language policing is unnecessary and doesn't help the people it's supposed to represent.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. A video claimed that referring to women as "guys" is sexist and offensive.
2. The video stated that using the term "guys" excludes women and only includes men.
3. The term "guys" is defined in the dictionary as a person used in plural to refer to members of a group, regardless of sex.
4. By the early 1930s, Americans began using "guys" to refer to both men and women.
5. The term gained popularity in the 1970s and onwards.
6. Women's suffrage occurred before the widespread use of the term "guys" to refer to everyone, including women.
7. A deputy online editor at Forbes, Caroline Howard, noted that some women find the greeting "Hey ladies" to be sexist.
8. Referring to women specifically as "girls" can be taken as condescending or worse.
9. A list of gender-neutral terms was compiled as alternatives to "guys", including "yinz", "cohorts", "sentient life-forms", "beings", "entities", "conceptual units", and "addressees".