Radio presenter Jane Garvey has asked people not to use the address, but not everyone thinks ‘guys’ is a feminist issue

Name: “Hi guys!”

Age: According to Google’s Ngram Viewer, 44 years old.

Status: Problematic.

Oh, everything’s problematic with you, isn’t it? Don’t blame me. This is all the radio presenter Jane Garvey’s doing.

It is? Currently, yes. On Tuesday, she tweeted the following: “New rule – ‘Hi guys!!’ NEVER say this. Unless you are the daringly informal guest speaker at the annual meeting of The Society Of People Named Guy.”

What’s her problem with “Hi guys?” Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that she isn’t actually a guy.

Well now, hold on. The Oxford Dictionary has the following definition for guys: “People of either sex: ‘You guys want some coffee?’” OK, but it also defines the word guy as “a man”, so it could be argued that using guys as a gender-neutral address subconsciously reinforces society’s male-as-default paradigm.

Jane Garvey (@janegarvey1) New rule- “Hi guys!!” NEVER say this . Unless you are the daringly informal guest speaker at the annual meeting of The Society Of People Named Guy.

But isn’t “Hi guys” a derivation of Rita Moreno’s “Hey you guys” catchphrase from the US kids TV show The Electric Company and, since Moreno is a woman, doesn’t that make it acceptable for widespread use? Why does everything always have to be a negotiation with you?

Because I’m not going to drop a term from my vocabulary just because it upsets one woman. It doesn’t just upset one woman, though. Loads of women replied to Garvey who are just as irked by this term as she is. Plus there is enough discourse online to suggest that plenty of other people consider this a feminist issue.

Is it, though? That’s admittedly slightly harder to say. Two years ago, Deborah Cameron, professor of language and communication at Oxford University, said: “If women want to be addressed as ‘guys’, I’m not going to tell them they’re betraying the feminist cause.”

This whole thing is such a mess. It isn’t really. If women are annoyed when people call them “guys”, then surely the polite thing to do is just to call them something else. There’s no point hurting someone’s feelings for the sake of it. Just call Garvey something else.

Even if you suspect that she’s only against the word “guys” because she’s been forcibly usurped as the country’s most famous Garvey by a man called Guy? I’m sure Jane isn’t that petty, but, yes, even if you suspect that. Just be nice.

Right, but what about “dudes”. Can I at least call a mixed-gender group “dudes”? That depends. Are you either Bill or Ted?

No, I’m not. Then no you can’t, you doofus.

Do say: “It is simply not appropriate to use gendered introductions to a diverse group of individuals in 2018.”

Don’t say: “Got it. Thanks, babes.”