For the record I was posting in support of inclusive language, but pointing out that context and convention matter.
They seem to have even scrubbed my comment from their instance, lol.
dude is masculine in every definition i’ve found (looked it up) except for a city slicker new to a ranch…
i’ve always known it to be gender neutral… but i have a female friend that gets offended every time someone calls her that.
but the fact that it keeps happening means that it’s gender neutral to all of those people too (she’s a fairly feminine female).
that said, it’s best to just call people terms that they are comfortable with, not ones that you’re comfortable calling them.
personally, i find calling a single person they/them a little obtuse, but it’s not really that hard. (slightly confusing when there’s a question of whether im referring to them or a group of people).