Trying to speak in a gender neutral way

This is so cool that you want to figure this out!!!!

The trick is being willing to rearrange the sentencesentence. Instead of trying to replace words think of entirely different ways to say the same thing.

I'm your example above "I have a customer that needs help getting their cart to their car. Is anyone avilable?"

Note, if someone used this language for me but gendered language for others of be thrilled.... Although I'm NB

Try playing around with ways to say the same stuff... See if it helps

 

"Person" instead of "customer"? ^.^

 

As a gender neutral person that also works in retail, I completely understand. I would agree with rearranging the sentence to use customer or person instead, but still making it sound nice. Also if you used these neutral terms for everyone and not just someone you suspect to be trans it will work out better. I get called ma'am, miss, lady, etc all day long and it's exhausting. I'm glad you're working to try and be more inclusive.

 

Blast, if you are doing your best then most of the time you'll be excused any error of pronoun use. So when you are unsure of a person's sex or gender you could reduce errors by attempting to further assertain the person's gender title preference by information gathering.

You could go by the customer's name. They have just paid after all - and maybe they paid by card. The name on the payment card they used will probably tell you.

If they paid in cash, you could ask their name.

The name will usually tell you their gender pronoun preference.

If they have a cool non gender name, or a name you are unsure of, then you could start a conversation about their name its origin.

Failing certainty of gender even after all of this you could use neutral language.

I think that it's when a person is careless and quick to label that making errors, getting it wrong, and causing offense is more likely.

 

This is a really interesting topic 'cos I'd like to know this too. I don't have many suggestions to add except maybe 'I have someone who needs assistance. Is there anyone who can help?' Maybe 'someone' sounds better than 'customer' in that case?

 

Ahhh, but what about when your colleague arrives and you need to indicate which customer needs help? How will you then refer to that customer if you need to?

 

So usually this next correction is too nit-picky for me as I believe that the word can be somewhat gender-neutral... but since we're talking about being neutral in general I want to point out the use of a word that might sometimes be thought of as slightly less inclusive to some:

The lucky part on this one is... there is a 1 for 1 word swap that is gaining more and more traction. "Folks" or for those looking to call out that they're using the word very targetedly as a way to be inclusive of non-binary and transitioning people when writing: "Folx".

So for example

that's so inclusive though that it might be a bit over the top I personally hear "guys" as being gender neutral when used in the context that you've used it and I probably would correct nobody for the use of it outside of a discussion about speaking in a more gender-neutral way. At the same time, admittedly I do try to use it as little as I can personally. It slips out of my mouth sometimes, but not very often.

 

Kay, that sounds very apt. Folks or folkx sounds great. Guys is ok, but even if it's used neutrally, it still holds a historical base of maleness.

 

I think folks is very useable in the UK. It's always been here and it seems to have gained in useage lately, too. And folkx is even better. Dare we go even further, though, and use folx without the k? That's all, folx. Hmmm, maybe leave the k in. That's all folks. Yeh!

 

"A generational thing" indeed - how dare you! Lol.

No, it's widespread even on British TV. It's like "what's occurring?" a la Nessa is no longer just a Welsh thing.

 

So much ♥♥♥♥ right now... I am full of so many positive emotions from this thread I just cant tell you how happy it makes me lol... I'm a sap anyway though

Guys is definitely gender neutral for the majority of people... then for most of the minority it's not a big deal (I'd put myself in that category).. then there are some cis-women who probably are a little bothered by the bias (which is completely valid) but for some transgender people it's a reminder of gendery things. Is it super dysphoria inducing for every trans person in the world? no... I'd guess that most of us are like "meh"... but every once in a while if it was used in a group where there are 4 men and 1 trans woman... all the sudden it's a question in her head "did they mean that the gender neutral way, or did they just call me a guy?"... so that would be the place where I'd be the most careful with the use of "guy". I know that that's asking a bit more because it takes you off autopilot and I am actually more in favor of things that can be incorporated into our everyday autopilot habits.

I dunno... I'd say keep using it for the most part though, especially if folx is awkward where you are. Just keep using it as casual/natural as you did above and it's not the same as if you were to somehow stumble over it and act like it was something you shouldn't have done. Which is part of why I was reluctant to mention it. It's probably worse if someone fusses over a word that has so little consequence...

 

"Guys" just is not good for me - and it's not a generational thing. "Guys" can't be replaced with "girls" or "ladies" or "gals" or "dolls". If "guys" could be replaced with any of those other words in the same context then I'd accept the use of it. But it can't be.

 

Blast, a suggestion from another thread you posted in... Use the word comrade. Thus:-
"Assistance needed to help a comrade with shopping to the car park, please."
"Which comrade?"
"That comrade there, please."
"Thank you, comrade."

 

Whatever you decide to use, I think that as long as you don't use "it" or "this" or "thing" or "creature" when referring to someone you're not sure about then you will be ok...