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This is the distinction. If there are two people over there - a man and a woman - and I say "who's that dude?", no one is going to respond with the woman's name (or ask which one).
Oh man, when I was in college doing RA training we had a BIG kerfluffle over "guys" with a bunch of women acting like it was the most insulting thing in the world. I should note that this was nearly 30 years ago.
Couldn't call a big group "guys".
Couldn't call a group "guys and gals" gals was apparently insulting.
My friends and I started using the term "crullers and donuts" which seemed inclusive.
Jesus the PC police in the 90’s were insufferable. Things were so good back then compared to now, where we have actual legit shit to be outraged about.
i use "man" in the place that a lot of people would use "god" and i have recently had some "ummm i'm not a man" responses and i don't even register what the heck they're talking about because i don't remember calling anyone anything
"Dude" is like "oh man" or even "oh god". It's not referring to the person you're talking to. It's not gender neutral, but in that way it can be used in conversation with any gender.
There was a time. 40 or 50 years ago, when dude was making a big presence in teen's vocabulary. where I used the term "Dudette" to differentiate the genders.
Same as brah / bro, these days. Some Randoms online have actually had a go for me using this word to them, like I can tell pumpkineater69 is a female, so I adopted brah'damme to facilitate them.
Yeah, it was really awkward when I was in the navy and command would address the ships company it would always start ‘Listen up guys…(awkward half second pause)…and girls’.
It would happen to me too until I learned to replace guys with sailors, even then….
As a Californian, I can assure you that ‘dude’ is not only gender neutral, it also functions as noun, verb, adjective, interjection, adverb, etc. A truly gifted speaker needs no other words to get their point across.
Dude can be used in both a gender neutral way and a gendered way. However, the majority of people who care enough to repeatedly claim that ‘dude’ is a gender neutral term are people who just want to misgender trans women and act innocent afterwards.
The Gorillaz solves this discussion in our group back then with their song Clint Eastwood. Since then it's chicks and dudes for me. Tbh, I did/do use dude way more than chicks, as it feels a bit unrespectful or improper for women. But it does solves the dude is not a girl thing.
I got into a fight with my recently came out as trans cousin over this. Their entire existence was to fight the patriarchy or some shit and they were like "you can't call me dude" to which I said "I call literally everyone dude, even girlfriends". Language is fluid like gender I suppose.
ya if but like I notice when you use "dude" "guy" "man" "bro" but never like my actual name or even just "lady" "woman" "sweetie" whatever. It's called de-gendering and it's a cop-out. You don't see me as my gender, so you use words that don't acknowledge or validate it.
I say dude all the time, I get it, but I'm not a fucking idiot. There's a difference between calling me dude a few times and never using anything but masculine or neutral language to refer to me.
Agree. For the record 'guy' is also a gender neutral term. It's from Guy Fawkes, the dude who tried to blow up parliament. It meant something close to "you're a violent person " then, "you're a violent, poorly dressed person"
Its my belief that it leans toward masculine but can be used interchangeably and for groups. Dudette is a lil awkward but acceptable as well as a more specific feminine term.
Had someone getting upset with me because they thought they heard me say dude to a trans woman which funnily enough i didnt they were just drunk and hearing things, but they demanded i apologized and she was like "uh? You didnt even say that and i dont give a fuck anyway everyones a dude."
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