I realized something today, gender specific terms annoy me. Not things like he and she but things like dude and dudette. I always thought of dude as a gender neutral term. I don't understand why people, particularly women get upset at getting called a dude. I can understand why adults and professionals can take offense to juvenile terms, but when it is considered an affront purely because of its gender. I don't mind being called dude. I wouldn't mind being called buckaroo either, yet still a website still suggest that we need both buckaroos and buckarettes. Buckarettes? Really?
I don't consider myself a feminist. In fact I'm about the least opinionated person on just about any subject. But something about buckarettes seems to be one step too far. Is being a buckaroo so bad? Is it so hard to just be a dude? Can't everyone just be one of the guys?
Is that too much to ask?
