Originally Posted by
azthal
I'd say it's fairly gender neutral when it comes to GROUPS of people. "Hey dudes", "Hey guys" etc. Wouldn't use it that way myself, and do find it pretty silly. To me it would be exactly the same as calling a man "girl", "lady" or similar.
When you reference a specific person, dude is clearly not gender neutral.
"That girl is a dude!" to me means that my friend has spotted something that I didn't, and just saved me from doing something I would regret.
If I say "I went to dinner and movie with this dude yesterday, and then we went to my place and had some fun" my friends won't ask what this nice girls name is, but instead congratulate me on coming out of the closet.
Dude is clearly male.