Who Is A Dude? or The 21st Century Dude

You have an idea about what a Dude is, but probably your archetype is what we term the 20th Century Dude - somewhere in between the purity of Jeff Lebowski and the corrupt “bro”1. Perhaps the nature of the Dude changes anew with every Century - a dandified gentleman in the 18th becomes an inexperienced cowboy in the 19th. But the times are changing, and we are here to present and explore the 21st Century Dude.2

Looking at the internet’s democratically arranged wiktionary in January 20113, we note that the primary definition of Dude is “a man” - but clicking over to the definition of its plural, we see “any group of people, regardless of gender.” Without putting too much stock in wiktionary (after all, they also define dude as “a stranger”, whereas we say “a familiar or known person”), the drop of gender is interesting to note, as it nods to our assertion that Dude is a gender-free identifier.

We understand this is a controversial stance, and more will be said about dudes and gender, at length. We are specifically working to disabuse terminology of outdated segregations, and acknowledge an essential characteristic of the Dude to be a person compelled by individual nature. Though the shape of inborn genitalia was once assumed to suggest a template for one’s personality, we are now in an era of cultural override, which celebrates the capacity for infinite variation. At any rate, it would do us good to revisit those historic definitions of Dudes, and note that they refer to men-who-are-not-quite-men. How did this become translated into the 20th Century sense of a hyper-masculine Dude (bro)?

Though there have always been Dudes, there is currently a glut of them. A majority of college students will dabble in some form of dude lifestyle (some colleges seem to promote this; see Dude Training), and widespread internet use among children provides the fertile ground from whence dudes spring. These examples align Dudes with youth and verily, a dude of any age is likely to have some youthful aspect. But lifetime Dudes exist, and with greater cultural prominence and relevance than ever before.4