“You sniffing my boxers dude?” “Dude! Get this…” “ Dude! That’s sick…” “Dude, like, I know what you’re saying…” “Hell yeah, Dude…” This completes the interacting range of “dude” usage, as presented by Social Anthropologist Scott Kiesling. According to his work, the usage of ‘dude’ chiefly indexes a social stance of “cool solidarity” to one’s peers, an identity that Kiesling argues taps into the hegemonic hold that non-intimate heterosexual “nonconformity” has upon masculine identities within this country. The quotes above serve as the five quintessential instantiations of ‘dude’ in conversation. All of which guide the ‘cool solidarity’ social position. They are as follows: confrontation mitigation stance, discourse structure marking, exclamation, affiliation and connection, and agreement, respectively.

The amount of work, in regard to identity presentation and social agility, done by the use of ‘dude’ in conversation is amazing. Think about it for a second, try to notice the very specific instances in which ‘dude’ slips out of your mouth. Consider perhaps what ‘dude’ may have accomplished by your using it. It’s wild. This is a delicate line for us American guys to walk, because God forbid we let someone know how we actually feel about them; is to express a genuine sense of camaraderie while keeping a cool, disconnected, casual stance. Because, God forbid we get passionate about something, like a relationship!

In regard to these five most common uses, let’s explore them further to see what they might say about us. The “You sniffing my boxers dude?” accomplishes essentially “Dude, we are bros, we’ve known each other as bros for a while now…so why are you giving me reason to question that?”

Do you see what happened there? We saved a few words- and potentially intimate words at that! However in this situation, a couple more intimate words may be helpful, since the cat may already be out of the bag. Kiesling calls this confrontation stance mitigation; because you don’t want to throw down with your broham over some boxers, do you? With the “Dude, get this”, it’s more like “ Hey, here comes a story!” The discourse structure is marked as an upcoming story, which is pretty straightforward, not as much cool solidarity is indexed, however. “Dude, that’s sick” is like “I am celebrating our dude-ness together, your success is my success!” Kiesling calls this exclamation, which is what it is. “Dude, I know what you are saying” is your buddy’s way of really saying, “Brody, the last comment you made really made an impact on me and I think I am beginning to feel a deeper connection to you because of it. But I am totally not gay, I swear. Not that being gay is a bad thing, it’s just not me…I just, I relate to you, especially now.” See? Not so cool Brody knows it, and you know it.

‘Dude’ can really help a guy out. And finally, “Hell yeah dude” is “I agree with you emphatically. By doing that I am reaffirming my own identity as someone who is the result of cultural forces that pressure me to say ‘dude’ and ‘hell yeah.’ I am essentially agreeing with myself, which is fine, as long as I don’t realize the implications.”

You now have a translation for what your buddy is saying. For those of you who are a bit more complex, or for those ladies who are wondering, “why does he think his laid back ‘dude’ utterances and stereotyped nonchalance are impressing me…because they’re not,” should rest easy. By the way, Kiesling’s research was carried out in a frat…I don’t know if that means anything to you, but it definitely does to me, dude.