Gender Ref in Chat

[rockin_rod]

While on CB recently, somebody pulled up a mod when they wrote in chat: "OK Guys and Gals, she'll BRB in 10"
The viewer replied asking why they thought there would be anyone other than males in a female model's room.
The mod wrote back that it was entirely probable that there were non-males in the room, and why would they assume camsites were not reflective of everyday society in this regard?
Then someone else chimed in to say in that case, they should not have just referred to 'guys and gals,' as people can identify in many other ways.
Another commented that they always refer to people as 'guys' as a non-specific term, and that is generally accepted as being all-inclusive.

I had not really thought much about these terms before, other than an awareness that people usually refer to just 'guys' in chat ("c'mon guys, tip"). In fact, even in the '.......make you go wtf' thread here, unknown users are usually credited with "he".
The model did not really seem have any opinion on this, but it certainly gave me pause for thought.
So, wondered what this group, as room owners, felt about it? Can it alienate or offend? Should we stick to just a generic term? Do viewers even talk to you about gender, or how they identify?

 

[AudriTwo]

Where I'm from "you guys" means a group of people. It's genderless. Everyone is guy.


Mehh I really don't care if others try to be inclusive. It's just people trying to be respectful of others gender identity. Which isn't a terrible thing. I personally like to say "guys, gals, nonbinary pals." I do have a handful of female regs. I've also had a reg transition to female and Im very respectful of her pronouns.

 

[rockin_rod]

I personally like to say "guys, gals, nonbinary pals." I do have a handful of female regs. I've also had a reg transition to female and Im very respectful of her pronouns.

That is an awesome phrase!! Great response, thank you

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

Folks. Y'all. Everyone. My audience definitely has some gender fuckery going on.

 

[rockin_rod]

fuckery

what a great term, now added to my list of frequently-used

 

[yummybrownfox]

While on CB recently, somebody pulled up a mod when they wrote in chat: "OK Guys and Gals, she'll BRB in 10"
The viewer replied asking why they thought there would be anyone other than males in a female model's room.
The mod wrote back that it was entirely probable that there were non-males in the room, and why would they assume camsites were not reflective of everyday society in this regard?
Then someone else chimed in to say in that case, they should not have just referred to 'guys and gals,' as people can identify in many other ways.
Another commented that they always refer to people as 'guys' as a non-specific term, and that is generally accepted as being all-inclusive.

Good grief. That poor mod. Lol. If the mod had typed "Ok, everyone...she'll BRB in 10," would that have made the viewers happy? Or would they have just found something else to nitpick about? Lol.

"Okay, everyone...she'll BRB in 10" works.
So does "Okay, y'all...she'll BRB in 10."
So does "Okay, you guys...she'll BRB in 10." The phrase "You guys" is commonly used to address everyone, no matter the gender.

 

[rockin_rod]

Good grief. That poor mod. Lol. If the mod had typed "Ok, everyone...she'll BRB in 10," would that have made the viewers happy? Or would they have just found something else to nitpick about? Lol.

"Okay, everyone...she'll BRB in 10" works.
So does "Okay, y'all...she'll BRB in 10."
So does "Okay, you guys...she'll BRB in 10." The phrase "You guys" is commonly used to address everyone, no matter the gender.

I hear you. I actually think this was a bit of blatant mod-baiting, he's not very popular.
But what really got me thinking more about the comment was the response by another user, who thought it was impossible for there to be anything other than men in the model's room.

 

[DoD404]

"Ok, everyone...she'll BRB in 10,"

Ok, everyone...the Model will BRB in 10 ^^

 

[Fatquack]

I like "fellow pervs" because we are all perverts and I am proud to be one!

Then again, I do tend to hide my terrible horror DVD's behind my porn collection...

 

[yummybrownfox]

Ok, everyone...the Model will BRB in 10 ^^

What I'd originally said ("She," since we're talking about a female model) was fine, but okay...

 

[Ozzie_]

I like "fellow pervs" because we are all perverts and I am proud to be one!

You have to be careful with that also. In the room I visit we frequently refer to "more perverts". Occasionally someone will get po-faced about it and say "I am NOT a pervert!"

 

[GraysonDrake]

I live for this level of pedantry.

(I'm also nonbinary and mostly present femme because it's easier to be a shill than correct people all the time)

 

[Chiara_Montague]

I prefer to say "ya'll". I don't think "guys" is as genderless as people think it is, I think it leans male. For example, if a straight male friend of yours said, "I went on a date and hooked up with this guy last night, it was great!", you wouldn't assume he's talking about a woman nor would the term be so neutral that you would question if your friend is really bi instead of straight.

I think it's colloquial enough not to be offensive, so I don't have a problem with people saying it.

 

[AmberCutie]

I prefer to say "ya'll". I don't think "guys" is as genderless as people think it is, I think it leans male. For example, if a straight male friend of yours said, "I went on a date and hooked up with this guy last night, it was great!", you wouldn't assume he's talking about a woman nor would the term be so neutral that you would question if your friend is really bi instead of straight.

I think it's colloquial enough not to be offensive, so I don't have a problem with people saying it.

I dunno. GUYS is different than the singular GUY. To me and lots of people probably. I say "guise" in text a lot to make it slightly less rendered though. Pronounced is still the same.

 

[AudriTwo]

I don't think "guys" is as genderless as people think it is,

from reddits, but its been based off a survey that most people in the us prefer to say when mentioning a group of people. 'you guys' is definitely a regional slang for the us.

 

[Chiara_Montague]

If I'm sitting with someone and they gesture behind them and say "those guys back there" and there's a group of men and a group of women, I'm probably going to think they're talking about the group of men and not the group of women. To me, "guys and gals" doesn't mean "everyone and women", it means "men and women". If I hung out with my female friends, I wouldn't say "I hung out with a group of guys last night and it was fun". What about if your friend says "I had a threesome with these two great guys"? Would you assume male or female?

 

[Chiara_Montague]

from reddits, but its been based off a survey that most people in the us prefer to say when mentioning a group of people. 'you guys' is definitely a regional slang for the us.

Lots of people saying it doesn't make it genderless. Guy and guys skews male. "Guys' night" assumes male. "How many guys have you fucked?" assumes male. In most instances it assumes male. It very rarely refers to groups of women only and is primarily used for mixed groups and groups of men, therefore it's not gender neutral. Again, I don't have a problem with that and its use I'm just saying tho.

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

Yeah it makes sense that the majority of a poll would say that "guys" is gender-neut, because overall, we haven't accepted truly neutral terminology as widely. I see it every day. People are still arguing against singular "they" on the basis of grammar, as if we don't invent new linguistic conventions all the time. As if every word wasn't made up. The words flow too quickly person to person for any textbook to keep up, so there can never be a rubric for us to accurately judge against. The language rules are behind the actual use.

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

Alsoooooooo I think there is an element of classism when it comes to the adoption of "y'all."

 

[GraysonDrake]

Alsoooooooo I think there is an element of classism when it comes to the adoption of "y'all."

I'm from the south and every class here has people who say y'all. It's regional. Also the internet and the desire for English to have a gender neutral 2nd person plural pronoun again has likely been spreading its use.

It might be more fraught in places where it's not traditionally used by white people though, I dunno.

Fun fact: In Elizabethan/Shakespearean English, "you" was the plural of "thou" and there was as much debate about plural you as there is now about singular they

 

[KingMarti]

Lots of people saying it doesn't make it genderless. Guy and guys skews male. "Guys' night" assumes male. "How many guys have you fucked?" assumes male. In most instances it assumes male. It very rarely refers to groups of women only and is primarily used for mixed groups and groups of men, therefore it's not gender neutral. Again, I don't have a problem with that and its use I'm just saying tho.

The part that skews it male is the context though right? like "guys night out" would be a taken to mean a night out for males, but if you are with a group of people "i'll catch you guys later" isnt referring to gender but addressing a group of people, like "hey everyone im off".

imo everything comes down to context, the meaning of the words and phrases can change depending on when and how they are used and the context in they are used in is more important than the actual words for understanding it's meaning, since words often have multiple meanings bassed on the context and situation where they are used.

It's not uncommon to use the majority gender to base a plural off either, eg/ if I am out with a group of girls, rather than right guys im off it could be right girls im off ( depends who I am out with whether guys or girls get's used), I wouldnt take that to mean they are talking to everyone except me, just that's the majority.

In the uk at least it's also not uncommon for people to address a bunch of guy's with the plural girls or ladies, again it all depends on the situation and the context in when it's being said.

What about if your friend says "I had a threesome with these two great guys"? Would you assume male or female?

Let's try changing the context though, what if you are out with a bunch of friends and someone says "right guys, time for me to go" Would you assume they were talking to the entire group of people for just the males?

 

[InannahQoH]

I think there is a lot of bias, depending on region / country / etc
As an Australian Male, I find the use of "Guys" to be offensive when its used to address a mixed group.
I also find it offensive to assume only males are in the channel.

So i usually use generic, like Everyone, People, All,

Or to be more specific i usually just use "Hello's" and chuck a S on the end of the hello and don't mention gender.

 

[InannahQoH]

what if you are out with a bunch of friends and someone says "right guys, time for me to go" Would you assume they were talking to the entire group of people for just the males?

Id assume they were talking to the whole group.
But i would also assume they are being disrespectful to the non males in the group.. And i wouldn't like it.

And then .. I'm not friends with people who are disrespectful to genders.. So I wouldn't be in that "bunch of friends" for long / again..

 

[veggiebabyy]

I'm fine with guys as a gender neutral term, though I think it is context dependent. Sometimes it's neutral, sometimes it means men. When I'm talking to my cam room, I tend to refer to everyone as "pals" or "friends" or something like that, though I definitely will use "guys" occasionally and mean it in a gender neutral way. Anyone who has spent time in my room knows that that space is open to people of all genders, and I'll make sure everyone's pronouns are respected, so I do make an effort to be fairly gender neutral at least on cam. My videos are all aimed at men because they're almost always bought by men, though I do have regular buyers on MV that I'd guess aren't men based on their usernames.

One of my favorites is someone on tiktok who addresses her followers as "sentient balls of stardust."

 

[Sxmxr]

My pronouns are potato/potahto

 

[AudriTwo]

Another food for thought. Most gay men in English-speaking countries refer to another person as girl, regardless of gender. I agree with @KingMarti that context definitely matters.

 

[Chiara_Montague]

Alsoooooooo I think there is an element of classism when it comes to the adoption of "y'all."

Interesting point. I think I'd agree with you on that.

 

[Chiara_Montague]

The part that skews it male is the context though right? like "guys night out" would be a taken to mean a night out for males, but if you are with a group of people "i'll catch you guys later" isnt referring to gender but addressing a group of people, like "hey everyone im off".

imo everything comes down to context, the meaning of the words and phrases can change depending on when and how they are used and the context in they are used in is more important than the actual words for understanding it's meaning, since words often have multiple meanings bassed on the context and situation where they are used.

It's not uncommon to use the majority gender to base a plural off either, eg/ if I am out with a group of girls, rather than right guys im off it could be right girls im off ( depends who I am out with whether guys or girls get's used), I wouldnt take that to mean they are talking to everyone except me, just that's the majority.

In the uk at least it's also not uncommon for people to address a bunch of guy's with the plural girls or ladies, again it all depends on the situation and the context in when it's being said.



Let's try changing the context though, what if you are out with a bunch of friends and someone says "right guys, time for me to go" Would you assume they were talking to the entire group of people for just the males?

I agree it depends on context. But as I said, the context is usually either everyone in a mixed group of genders or just men. It rarely means just women so therefore it leans male.

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

I'm from the south and every class here has people who say y'all. It's regional. Also the internet and the desire for English to have a gender neutral 2nd person plural pronoun again has likely been spreading its use.

That's kind of what I mean though, regionally outside the south, there seem to be classist stereotypes about what southern people are like and what it means to use language that originates there. But I agree with you about the internet spreading it like wildfire!