Girl

[prog]

Already rethinking earlier statement about the word "girl". To go against college-indoctrinated language lessons feels like a tiny act of sacrilege, and invites a deal of internal debate. Here is an excerpt:

jmac: After all, there are plenty of contexts where I could legitimately use "boy" in reference to an adult male.

strange interlocutor: Fair enough, but what about that context in the cafe? if you'd been served your coffee by a man, would you have written "the boy who..."? No, you'd have written "the guy who...", and I resist your sexist equivalence of the ambiguous "guy" with the diminutive "girl". Shame shame shame on you.

jmac: [Mumbles, shuffles feet.]

This is an old argument and I back away from having an official opinion on it for today.

Comments

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's rather bizarre, if she's saying it with a straight face (as opposed to saying it to tease you for some reason).

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Nope -- straight face. Apparently to her the phrase is ment literally as 'a friend who is male' with no sexual context. I mentioned my concern about it from time to time but occasionally she'll be talking on the phone while I'm there and she'll say something along the lines of, "He's here but will be going to his boyfriend's place later".

Maybe it's a generational thing -- e.g. in the 50's the term 'gay' didn't have the homosexual inferences as it does now.

She even considered changing this to 'manfriend' or 'guyfriend' both of which sound even more homosexual -- I tell her just say 'friend' without implying any gender at all.