I call everyone "bro" and "dude" but only in the passive or collective sense. I don't say "my wife is a dude" but I do say "dude, what's up?" to my wife. It's just how I talk and she doesn't care.

But also I refer to people how they want to be referred to.

I think there's nothing to worry about, then! It's cool that you asked here.

specific male dominated contexts. Like during playing video games & pen and paper gaming

these arent actually male dominated contexts, women were just pushed out of spaces by men because misogyny. data has actually shown that more women play video games than men do

really saying any activity is a "male activity" is rooted in misogyny. the star trek fandom was mostly women when it started until men decided that girls werent allowed to like scifi :p

For me personally, that's the best i got, i only look for intentions. Was that, "Hey, dude" derogatory? Was it just a general "howdy"? Each is much more than just the word. It's about the inflection and emphasis. Pretty easy to tell when they are being intentionally rude.

I've used many tact to get around this. More than often it throws me off so much I'm genuinely flabbergasted. My look often works great if anyone else is around. Sometimes i just full on ignore them. Not even a head glance. Genuinely assume they are not speaking to you. Its a very hard sheild to weave. Once you learn the art of not reacting they are forced to bathe in the comment. Let it breath. Make them think about what they just said.

Still a 50/50 haha 😄