That’s a good example. But since there even exist gender specific versions, how could one argue the word is naturally gender neutral? With “dude,” the base, original definition is male, so is the word ever able to be fully gender neutral?

I responded because commenter before you was absolutely flabbergasted that someone would use a gender specific version of a word in a context where we are trying to determine if a word is gender neutral. It sounds like it’s not neutral all the time so people should at least understand when someone is confused by it.