I never really thought about whether our colloquialisms are gendered. It never really occurred to me to think about that or about gendered language. However, now that I have, it is obvious that they are. Gender is a focus of everything we do or see. Everything focuses on falling into a gender category. For one, obviously, he and she is as gendered as is gets. Today, they have gender neutral pronouns, but fifty years ago they definitely did not. In other languages and cultures they might have, but definitely not here in the United States.
The first thing I thought about when I saw this assignment was Spanish. In Spanish, every noun is gendered. For example, a male cat in Spanish is gato. A female cat is gata. Even for a cat there are different words simply based on gender. Most languages have different words for different genders.
Even today, words such as dick and bitch are gendered. Dick refers to someone who is mean and rude. Mean and rude are meant to refer to a man. Bitch, however, refers to someone who is whiny and too emotional. It usually is meant as a comparison to a girl, especially if a man is called one. Language is very gendered and in a bad way. Too many words focus on the stereotypical gender roles of the society they are in.
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