> to some ears

OP added that after the reply.

Though often used in a gender neutral way, "guys" is definitely more male than "y'all".

Fun litmus test, if the person challenging this assertion happens to be a straight male: "how many guys have you slept with?"

I'd guess this depends on region/demographic, but at least in my circles on the west coast, "guys" is gendered when it's used to describe or identify people in the third person, but it's gender-neutral when used to address a group of people in the second person.

So "the guys" or "how many guys" always refers to men, but "you guys" carries no implication of gender at all. I often hear people address groups consisting entirely of women as "guys", and nobody bats an eye.

Yes agreed. In most regions/groups in America, "you guys" does not carry the same meaning as "a group of guys"

Also for reference, these are "compound nouns" - a single noun composed of multiple words. No one has these issues with "ice cream", for example, but "you guys" really is just another one of these.

I think it makes sense to say "you guys" is a compound noun, but the word "guys" can be used in this gender-neutral addressing-a-group sense outside of the phrase "you guys". For example: "Hey guys!", or "Guys, what should I eat for lunch?"

but the question was about "you guys" which is a distinct phrase that happens to share a word.

IIRC guy part is actually descended from Guy Faux, which in itself is cool.

(edit: fix grammar)

Which itself seems to be related to the word "guy" as in "guy wire" also related to "guide", "guidance", or "guidelines". Meaning to lead, direct, or conduct. To show the way.

This reminds me of when they tried to de-gender Spanish and the vast majority of native Latinos hated it, Google still refuses to back down on “Latinx”

Maybe OP meant gendered?

As ‘guy’ is normally a male.

But sexist would imply that it degrades either women or men, which I don’t think it does in this case?

"Sexist" does feel like too strong a word. "Gendered" perhaps more appropriate.

"Guys" is certainly gendered, so I understand folks feeling like "you guys" is as well.

Depends. Is there a difference between the phrase "Handprint4469 like fucking guys", and "Handprint4469 likes fucking you guys", pointing over to your mom and your sister?

So you're willing to just brush off a large groups complaints with a phrase entirely meant to address groups?

In communication there are senders and receivers.

You can receive something a certain way that was not intended by a sender.

It's important to try to understand the intent of the sender. In this case, many cultures sending the message "you guys" don't internally view this as relating to gender.

You could try to change their culture because many people receive it wrong, or you could learn about the culture and try to change the receivers culture.

Sometimes you can't accept the differences because it's perpetuates too much harm.

Where to draw the line is an ongoing and difficult question.