Thanks for all these responses. I have no problems with "y'all". Actually he might have said women here, as was pointed out but there were some "girls" being bandied about. Anyway he said "y'all women poets need to know something" which is exactly symptomatic of the problem. And yet if women start doing same back, talking about "men poets", oh boy they'd be hollered down!
And this "you need to know something". It's nothing to do with PC. It may be that some of this PC stuff, however, came about BECAUSE people were genuinely offended by certain assumptions and addresses. Having said that, I do know what email does with tone. The usual thing to do when one realises one's tone could be miscontrued, or not, if in fact one hasn't miscontrued at all! Anyway, the background is interesting to hear.
|