I dunno. I used to/sometimes still do refer to the significant other as "The Boy," but that's mainly because I'm not all that thrilled with all the other terminology used to describe one's uh, romantic whatever. Pool Boy, whatever, just sounds amusing to me.

And I've heard/seen a few guys refer to The Girl just as much as The Boy, these days.

Yeah, I too use "boy" as in, "the boy and I did this," just because lots of people don't know his name. However, I also say "boys are dumb" or whatever, so I DO refer to them in the plural. I personally am a lot more irked by "girls" than she is, though...

I always assumed that the entire point of saying "boy" or "boys" was to subvert the widespread and demeaning use of "girl" and "girls." You know, an enlightened strategy to put us all back on even footing via universal infantalization.

Seems to me that if it's okay to use "girl" because it's everywhere (as she states), then the best thing we could do is to increase the use of "boy" until it's viewed as exactly the same thing. Is she honestly saying we should stop doing it just because it hasn't achieved cultural totality yet? Who does she think we are, a bunch of quitters? (just kidding, sort of)

See, I guess what's always baffled me is the choice of "boy" over "guy." I was trying to call "boy" out because I've hardly ever heard it used in a context that isn't, well, "schmoopy" in some way. And I just hate schmoop. But I can see you're not guilty of that, so you can come to my pony party.

Hey, I totally leave open the possibility that I'm just a huge dink. I am a reformed user of all-lowercase typing, so . . . you do the math.

Sorry, I enjoy her writing, but I think she's dead wrong on this. I mean, I went through my feminist training in the 70s (and was better for it, I hasten to add), and subsequently would never use "girl" for anyone older than 14. Older than that, and it felt like the most revolting obscenity. So now in the last 15 years it's come back stronger than ever before, and I righteously resisted for the longest time, but... finally had to give in. But if I do, I will damn well say "boy" an equal amount. ("Guy" won't do it; we don't have a true female equivalent to that in English, which is where the overuse of "girl" came from in the first place.) And yes, as a college professor, I do have to think about this quite a lot in my dealings with students.

I think the female equivalent of guy is "gal." And nobody likes "gal." That felt outdated in 1940.

I think sometimes it's a regional thing too. I grew up in the South, and there 'boy' applied to certain members of the population had connotations that it (thankfully) doesn't seem to now. However, it was drummed into me that this was not a term to apply to men of voting age.