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Don't assume the author is a man. The author of this article is Stephanie Yang.
by asaph 6y ago
Don't assume the author is a man. The author of this article is Stephanie Yang.
- teekert 6y agoAs a non-native speaker, can one say: "My Woman"? Or what would you recommend?
- ceejayoz 6y agoThe sentence works fine if it’s left off entirely.
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- crispyporkbites 6y agoMy friend
- projektfu 6y agoKiddo
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- greencar 6y agom'lady
- jklein11 6y agoMy woman doesn’t sound right to me as a native English speaker. You could go with some non-gendered alternatives such as my friend or kimosabe. I guess the question is what we’re you trying to convey here?
- adwi 6y agoThis is a good question. I think English itself is lacking a bit here—ie: it’s very common to say “you guys”, semi-regardless of gender of the subjects, because we don’t have a 2nd person plural tense. The original line was a joke-ish, so here are some options given that context. “Ma,am” - very formal, often read as exaggeratedly polite. You’d be most likely to see this in a customer service context, hence the meme: “Ma’am, this is a Wendy’s” when people rant inappropriately. “My dear” - gent(/i)le, but can be read as misogynistic or belittling if you’re a man, especially one of higher “status”. From a female and/or peer, reads more as motherly advice. Use with caution. “Lady” - sort of splitting the difference. Formal, but more what you’d hear from a grumpy bus driver. Probably funniest option here. “Girl”/“gurl” - slangy and youthful, more a loan word from the drag community. You’d probably get downvoted on HN for it and upvoted on Reddit. “My dude” - more current jokey response, it’s been churned through Twitter and youth culture to the point where it’s meaningless enough that “dude” almost works for either gender. Probably don’t use this one, might even get downvoted on Reddit. Edit: god, sorry this turned out long, but it’s a pretty fun exercise.
- lordgrenville 6y agoI'd say dude more than "almost" works for either gender - it's become totally gender-neutral.
- munificent 6y ago> because we don’t have a 2nd person plural tense. Case, not tense, technically. "Tense" is for verbs. English does have a variety of ways of indicating second person plural: "ya'll", "y'ins", "you all", and "you guys" are the most common. It's a shame English discarded "ye". I like your alternate suggestions. In my family, we started using "bro" as gender neutral, at first ironically and now it's just stuck. I call my daughters "bro" all the time.
- JansjoFromIkea 6y ago"my friend" is probably the closest to what you're intending In my experience it pops up way more commonly amongst non-native speakers so your mileage may vary if the objective is to sound native. I assume it's a turn of phrase that's more common in some other languages?
- selimthegrim 6y agochief
- longhairedhippy 6y agoBeing originally from the South in the US, I prefer "y'all", it's nicely gender neutral and while plural, I can overlook that and use it in the singular as well.
- hguant 6y agoThe problem is that if you use "y'all" in a Zoom meeting with a bunch of people from the Northeast, the conversation immediately becomes about how "oh you're from the SOUTH what's that like."
- RhodoYolo 6y agoI don't know why this is downvoted tbh. This is a very popular sentiment. I was interning at Tesla and went to a 'Women in Tech' thing, referred to one of my friends sitting next to me as 'A chick'. She took no offense but the whole panel roasted me brutally.