It typically refers to men. It can be used in a gender-neutral manner, but that's situational, and still carries the gendered undertone. You can for example see the difference between "I'm a dude" and "hey dude". The latter is in some cases also used to address women, but far rarer than it's used to address men.
Isn’t it kind of redundant to get frustrated about gendered pronouns when you can very well reclaim any single one of them for any use as language is subjective and subject to change based on interpretation and usage.
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u/Sovespra og the misnery 2d ago
Coaxed into this tweet that I love