Alice Walker on "Guys"

I learned recently that all the way back in the 1980's, Alice Walker warned women at one of the early women's music festivals of the dangers of calling one another 'guys'.  In this women-only space, she urged these women to stop it.  Thirty some odd years later, this is still happening and probably is way more pervasive. Now in the years of 2000's whenever I have attempted to 'unlearn' women and men from this linguistic misogynist programming in public, I receive all sorts of defenses like: I'm from up North or the Midwest or the West or or or (as if that creates some sort of amnesty or excuse); I don't mean anything by it, I'm just trying to be inclusive (actually as Julia Penelope wrote about in Speaking Freely, this is a grand example of 'false inclusion'); or they look at me like I have just insulted them ten different ways....The defenses are astounding.

I searched Alice Walker today hoping to find something that she said about this in the past and come to find out, she is still saying the same thing.  Because we are still being called, "Guys."  For Goodness sakes!!

Thank you, Alice Walker, again and again and again....The fight is not over.

Following this post is another one that will link you to a YOUTUBE video of her speaking several years ago.  You can also find her writing about the topic in 2006 for In These Times: http://inthesetimes.com/article/print/2906/all_praises_to_the_pause/.

Alice Walker: Calling Women "Guys"

     Because I have grown weary of its repetitive invasion and I hope to bring a larger consciousness to the use of the word "guys" as a gender neutral term,  I have begun this blog about this particular linguistic laziness that has taken over common social interactions.   Like most pop cultured language, it has become unconscious, I believe, for the most part.  However, I also believe that like all pop culture/patriarchy be it intentional or unintentional,  it it detrimental to women.  My good friend Sandy Tate has written a very good rant poem about this issue and its effect on us, women (Notice, I did not say 'guys' because then you would be picturing men as what I mean. I do not mean men.  I mean women. Not guys.)  So, here we go...

ODE TO THE FEMALE
By Sandy Tate

I'm insulted by a chorus
Aimed to tease us and to bore us
With a word that does ignore us
And that single word is guy.

I'm a woman, can't you see?
I'll not take it silently
For what really satisfies
And brings sunshine to my eyes
Is for people of the world
To no longer call us guys!

The excuses cloud my brain
"We don't mean it," they exclaim
"We're just trying to be inclusive"
My retort is "You're intrusive!"

Why the need to erase woman
With misnomers and the like
Why the haste to make me no one
Can't they see that I'm a Dyke?

I'm a woman, not a girl
I once shouted to the world
Now I can't believe the lies
They are calling wimmin guys
And I'll shout it to the skies
I am not a guy in guise

Not a fellow, lad or chap
Not a brooding kind of bloke
Not a macho mind of pap
Not some kind of backward joke

Little girls are now called guy
By their unsuspecting mother
They'll grow up and wonder why
They're perceived as being other


Old wimmin in their seventies
Who should know better, if you please
Will call us guys with such an ease
I beg them stop on bended knees
I plead, I urge, implore and scream
They think that I'm a drama queen
They wave me off with such disdain
I leave in anger and in pain

Susan B. would be so mad
And Sappho would be really sad
To have their ears assaulted by
The nerve of some who'd call them guy

I'm sure the goddess, wise old sage
Would fly into a righteous rage
And witches' cauldrons they would boil
Burning guy words in their oil
And howling she-wolves would lament
And wonder where our wimmin went
The heavens crackle lightning bolt
As females everywhere revolt

The earth would open up and swallow
All whose minds are filled with hollow
Who's to blame for all this mess
Ah, but how I do digress

It's a word that's just not us
Hence, my need to make a fuss
What brings a glint to this old eye
Is to ne'er again be called a guy

Somewhere in the nether world
Where black holes live and fires burn
A gorgeous banner will unfurl
And urge females to take our turn
Its rainbow lettering will shout
Wimmin of the world come out
Make a potluck; make a dance
Laugh and sing with every chance
Heed the words from deep inside
Don’t let others call you guys