[2] In general, the words and speech patterns associated with men are perceived as rough, vulgar, or abrupt, while those associated with women are considered more polite, more deferential, or "softer".
[4] The word onnarashii (女らしい), which is usually translated as "ladylike" or "feminine," refers to the behaviour expected of a typical Japanese woman in a customary scene.
[5][6] Some linguistic features commonly associated with women include: omission of the copula da, the use of first person pronouns such as watashi or atashi among others, use of feminine sentence-final particles such as wa, na no, kashira, and mashō, and the more frequent use of the honorific prefixes o- and go-.
[11] Some words associated with men's speech include: the informal da in place of the copula desu, first person pronouns such as ore and boku, and sentence-final particles such as yo, ze, zo, and kana.
Men, however, tend to show a "self-oriented conversation style", telling stories and expressing their expertise on topics being discussed more than is typical of women in these studies.
[17]: 177 In these contexts imperatives and other directives are part of the vocal, kinetic and material environment they occur in, making male speech dependent on a specific situation without being linked to gender.
[17]: 181 [1]: 14 Since the late twentieth century observers have noted that individual Japanese men and women do not necessarily speak in the ways attributed to their gender.
[5] Upper-class women who did not conform to conventional expectations of gendered speech were sometimes criticized for failing to maintain so-called "traditional Japanese culture".
[21] Celebrities and tarento who use onē kotoba include Akihiro Miwa, Shōgo Kariyazaki, IKKO, Kaba-chan, and the twin brothers Osugi and Peeco.
[21] In one instance, two lesbian users of onē kotoba were interviewed by Claire Maree, who reported that they were characterized as onna-onē (女オネエ), or "female queens" by their peers.
[24] Abe further notes that two onabe included in a round table discussion in the bisexual and lesbian magazine Anise used jibun as a first-person pronoun, while trans men preferred boku.