My long-time friend and hair stylist very occasionally uses that with me and her other girl friends. She uses it super occasionally and in such a loving way that it doesn’t bother me as much. It’s very context dependent with her since she’s so caring and affirming to me and usually uses girl, sis, beautiful, babe, etc. If someone I didn’t know used that with me, I’d probably understand it’s being used in a gender-neutral way, but it originates from ‘homeboy’, so it still carries that slight weight.
My long-time friend and hair stylist very occasionally uses that with me and her other girl friends. She uses it super occasionally and in such a loving way that it doesn’t bother me as much. It’s very context dependent with her since she’s so caring and affirming to me and usually uses girl, sis, beautiful, babe, etc. If someone I didn’t know used that with me, I’d probably understand it’s being used in a gender-neutral way, but it originates from ‘homeboy’, so it still carries that slight weight.
I use it mainly with people I am familiar with.
I like to have terms of endearment for others and thats just one thats been good in a lot of contexts for me.
You and SCmSTR have pointed out the complexity in choosing that as a go to.
Thank you!