It’s time for our series of posts here at Jessica Who?, titled “Word of the Week”. In these short articles, from here on out published each Friday, I will explore the various labels and umbrella terms used to label us. By doing this, I hope to educate not only myself, but also anyone who may not be familiar with these terms. Feel free to add your own knowledge to each post by leaving a comment 
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The label that we will be examining is: Guy
Standard Definition
A man. In plural form it is used to refer to a group regardless of gender makeup.
Derogatory?
It can be.
What’s It Really Mean?
In American vernacular, “guy” can mean a man but “guys” can mean a group of women. Confused yet? Well, I don’t blame you. At first glance it is a bit strange that this word is used like this. After all, you normally wouldn’t look at a woman and call her a “guy”.
However, somewhere along the way it has become acceptable to call a group of females “guys”, as in “Hey, what are you guys doing? Want to watch some television?” I’ve heard both males and females say this.
On the other end, calling a transwoman or MTF crossdresser can be offensive, but usually only in cases when it is meant to be so.
My Take
In reference to the last line of the last section, I have an anecdote. My wife and I were at a cross-dresser support group meeting a couple of years ago and she was mingling by herself, trying to get to know the crowd.
She approached a group of crossdressers and said “Hey guys, what’s up?” and they gave her the death stares. This made her very sad and when she told me I was upset, because my wife is on our side and to make her feel like she said something wrong and embarrass her like that when she meant no harm was wrong in my opinion.
Another cool thing to note is that when you watch vlogs and other types of videos by transwomen, a large number of them open their videos with “Hey guys”. So, in general, it’s a part of our language that is acceptable and mostly harmless.
With that, I’m out. See you later guys 
!!
Your Take
Have you anything to add? Please leave your take on this word in the comments section, I hope we can open up a dialogue and learn from each other while educating the masses.
JessicaWhoHD
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a very interesting relationship with the word “guy” because it the way I choose to identify.
When I decided to come out to some of my friends as trans this summer, I needed a word to describe my gender because it just seemed so tedious to have to explain the complexities of everything. I’ve adopted the term “guy” and I am really happy with it.
As an identity marker, rather than just a vaguely gendered word for a nondescript group of people, I love it because I feel that it encompasses my desire for masculinity and masculine expression without forcing me or other people to adopt expectations of extreme machismo that come with the term “man.” “Guy” sounds like someone who is masculine but able to embrace some feminine qualities and not expected to constantly reassert what masculinity s/he’s got. Plus, for me personally, I feel that it encompasses my boyish nature as well, capturing my silliness and occasional innocent immaturity, while still being mature enough to surpass the realm of “boy.”
Re: your anecdote, I feel so sad when I hear stories like this! While I understand that constantly having to educate people is frustrating, if someone is at a support group, clearly they are there either to support or to get better at supporting. The way to handle that situation was absolutely not to make your wife feel stupid or wrong; if they were truly offended, they should have been polite, engaged her in conversation like human beings, and calmly explained that, “Hey, just so you know, when you call us guys, we feel that…” Sending death glares at people is not helping anyone, especially when you send them at awesome people who are totally not “the enemy.”
Your plural usage of guys to define a random group has become normalised but if guy, bloke, chap etc. are used directly I think a death stare is the least a person should expect, back when I was inbetween genders I wished serious harm when those expressions were used!
As an oldie. Guy to me was the man made of old clothing-”Male” we all put on the top of a bonfire for “cracker night” Empire day or Guy Faulkes Night. In the 1950s Months before Cracker Night all children collected as much fire wood sticks and old rubber tires as we could gather to build the largest bonfire we could. The more the fire smoked the better in those days before atmospheric pollution put an end to bonfire night.
Guys were men or ropes on a ship or boat. as in the musical there were Guys and dolls. Men and women. Australians copied the US term guy meaning people not just men and women. The Aussies seem to now say uowze guys instead of you guys Not at all good English or grammar
Guys is yet another col0qualism . The US Guys and Dolls. Australian in my younger days was Blokes and Sheilas.
For me guys will always describe a male person
I try not to take offense to terms used by people who are not TG like myself. Most just dont know what to say and need some encouragement as to what to say. Now if some one purposly says something derogatory just to get one upset that is a different matter.
My fav exchange between husband and wife friends of mine. We were all headed out to an event, and he said, “Let’s go, guys.” To which she replied, “I’m not a guy, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner we can have kids.” We all busted out laughing.
1. One Word: “Y’all”
(‘Specially i you can do “hillbilly drawl with a sexy, sultry, southern belle inflection.)
Seen’s how I’m not even remotely passable, and don’t pretend to myself (or anyone else) that I am, and given that I often dress, speak, articulate and ambulate quite androgynously, “Guy(s)” is perfectly fine. (I do smile when nice and ‘clued-in’ persons address me as femme, especially when I’m ejoying an especially femme sense of self that day.)
Especially at at trans support meeting, the attendees should get a thicker skin.