Roadblocks

For the most part, the gradual expansion of the meaning of “guy” to include everyone, male and female and GLBTQ, has slipped by without particular notice by the general public, and even by linguists. There’s no mystery about Guy Fawkes being the starting point that leads as far from that beginning as groups of women calling each other “you guys,” but neither is there much interest—except in two quarters that object: the feminist movement and the Old South of the United States. Feminists who want the inherently sexist English language to become gender neutral object to the expansion of “guys” to include women as well as men. As a result, some people try to avoid “guys,” though the alternatives aren’t that obvious, at best a plain “you all.” The other objection comes from Southerners, who don’t so much object to “guys” as keep to their well-established older alternative “y’all.” The boundary between “guys” or “you guys” and “y’all” has remained firm for the last century, perhaps getting its strength as one last means of holding the line against the northern states.