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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5g!jdh
From: jdh@hou5g.UUCP (Julia Harper)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Dividing Line
Message-ID: <541@hou5g.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 10:06:32 EST
Article-I.D.: hou5g.541
Posted: Thu Mar  7 10:06:32 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 06:20:34 EST
References: <731@decwrl.UUCP> <745@amdcad.UUCP> <627@mhuxt.UUCP>, <917@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 30


I just had a brilliant idea!
Maybe part of the problem in this newsgroup of boys calling girls 
girls and women getting annoyed is because it really is boys 
and women! As in, I seem to remember that the males in this newsgroup
tend to be significantly younger than the females.

I think the dividing line for boy/man and girl/woman is 18-20
-- it takes time to get used to the new word for yourself.
I also think that at the same time men and women start referring
to their male friends as men, they should also start referring to
their female friends as women.

Actually, a large part of the problem is that young men are referred
to as guys or fellows, and there is no equivalent vernacular for
young women.
		
(You know:	0-18	16-35?	30+
		boy,	guy,	man
		girl,	?	woman )

I am in the ? age group, and far prefer woman to girl.  (You could even
say my first reaction is not to speak to someone who calls me girl,
unless they are in their 60's and are simply showing their age.)

(Of course this theory doesn't explain the times I've heard 22 year old
men referring to 40 year old women as girls!)
-- 
Julia Harper
[ihnp4,ariel]!hou5g!jdh