I would say it is gender neutral to male coded, diminutive in nature.
You call a child "buddy." It is male coded, but because it refers to children it becomes more androgynous in nature.
I've been in social contexts where in the local dialect it was gender neutral and status neutral, but in other contexts it is not so much male coded as it was to belittle.
goddammit if ya'll take buddy or homie away from me for the times on chapo dot chat where i want to broadly express gender neutral affection but "comrade" feels too formal/cringe/performative so help me god.....
It’s neutral, but I only hear it being used towards guys. Might be different if your from the Midwest. When I hear girls saying it it’s usually towards a pet or child lol
Oh I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I really feel like "Man", "Buddy", "Guy", "Fellow", "Fella", "Dude", "Bro", and more all have varying amounts of masculinity behind them ranging from lots to almost none at all and I feel an impulse to try and rank them...