Is "dude" becoming gender neutral? [duplicate]
It is common in my experience (woman in US, 26, liberal hippie type) for groups of women to be called "dudes" or "guys" by both men and other women, but not for individual women to be called a "dude" or a "guy." One exception seems to be in greetings using "dude," as in, "Hey dude!"
Yes.
I've been calling female friends in the UK "dude" for years and nobody's yet found it to be unusual.
Personally I would feel quite creeped out if a male individual would address me with dude and I have not seen the word dude used as a gender neutral term. If a female individual would address me with dude I think she could get away with it, but it's not something I have actually seen.
A (female) friend of mine does use the terms dudette
dudette (plural dudettes)
- (slang, often humorous) Term of address for a woman.
- (slang, often humorous) A cool woman, especially a surfer or skater.
[...]
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dudette
and dudess
dudess (plural dudesses)
- A female dude, i.e. a cool female.
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dudess
although as stated this usage is often a bit joking and humours rather than serious.
For that matter, it can also be pointed out that dude is still only defined as a male term in the dictionary I checked.