You guys!

I have overheard several debates recently about the expression 'you guys' and whether or not it is an exclusionary expression that overlooks women and elevates men.

You guys is something I say often, likely many times a day.  As in:

• Come on you guys!  We're late!
• Can you guys give me your opinion on whether this report is too wordy?
• Please take care of this task you guys.  I'm busy.
• Have a good weekend you guys!

Granted, I work with mostly guys so saying this is completely fitting a lot of the times.   But I'm pretty sure that I use you guys in reference to groups of mixed genders as well as groups of just women.  To me, it is the equivalent of saying you all or you people or I guess just you (plural).  I'm not from the south or the midwest so I don't say you all.  I probably do say you people, but it is a little less natural and can sound a little more pointed and authoritarian then the more casual you guys.

But recently, I've overheard several other women discussing how hearing and saying you guys offends their feminist sensibilities and strikes them as exclusive and lacking in acknowledgement of women.  They encouraged each other to find alternative ways of saying the same thing in a gender inclusive way and make a conscious effort to rid themselves of the you guys habit.

I would argue that rather than it being the exclusionary expression it may once have been, that the  evolution of language has resulted in you guys becoming a colloquialism striped of gender.  Just as certain groups attempt to co-opt words like feminist or gay or emotional or even curvy in order to change its meaning and render it anti-feminist or otherwise negative, an evolving, more progressive society has co-opted the expression you guys and claimed it as gender non-specific.  Is this not a feminist achievement?