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かしら is generally considered to be a question particle for use by females; are there any situations or dialects in which it is usable by males? I'm aware that historically, it was used by both male and female speakers; I'm mostly concerned about modern usage.

Edit: I'm quite aware that, normally, it sounds quite odd. I'm more concerned about whether there are exceptional situations or dialects where male かしら usage is common enough not to sound odd.

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    As a male, pondering your question: どうかしら。。
    – makdad
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 3:16
  • Added a bounty, as none of the existing answers really answer whether such exceptional situations exist...
    – bdonlan
    Commented Jun 7, 2011 at 21:08

3 Answers 3

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I did a search on this and found the following:

昔、TBSの番組「ザ・ベスト10」で久米宏が なに気に 「〜かしら」と言ったのを見て初めは かなり衝撃でしたが アナウンサーの業界では以外と使われている様です。 あと学者や解説者など、有識者や育ちのいい人が 今でも比較的違和感なく使っていますね。

Loose translation:

"Back in the days, Kume Hiroshi used it quite frequently in the show "The Best 10". While it may come as a shock to those who first experience it, it's actually used quite often by TV announcers."

It also mentions usage by scholars, commentators, and experts in their respective fields.

Source

EDIT

As an edition, this was often used by one of the main male characters in the popular manga series のび太くん, as shown here:

Nobita-kun usage

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Well, you are always free to use かしら, whether if people think if you are a weird is a different matter.

It's not as much as being inappropriate(in a social sense) as to sounding weird.

Linguistically it's usually used by female speakers and male speakers who are cross-dressers/gay as far as I know.

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  • Sounding weird is sort of what I mean by inappropriate - if it were an appropriate choice, nobody would find it odd :)
    – bdonlan
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:11
  • ah I see, in that case then I guess you can say it's inappropriate but I doubt you will offend anyone for misuse.
    – Ken Li
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:14
  • I do actually have a non-gay co-worker who routinely uses かしら, and it just comes off as effiminate/childish... though he also doesn't refer to himself as 私 but as "Turugi"
    – Mark Hosang
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:29
  • @Mark Hosang that's why I said it's usually used by females, but you are right that it sounds rather effiminate to me as well.
    – Ken Li
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:34
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Not that this answers your question, but it's quite possible. In the Kansai area (and possibly elsewhere) it's quite normal for men to end sentences in わ. So maybe there are places where they use かしら as well. Of course, you (presumably you're a male) should probably stay away from it until you know for sure.

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    -1 Except for this わ is not the わ that women use at the end of their sentence. It actually is short for "私"
    – Mark Hosang
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:26
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    That's not how all the guys I know use it; exactly the same as the girls. もう行くわ has nothing to do with 私.
    – istrasci
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 1:31
  • yup you were right abotu the Watashi part. Though after consulting with my japanese co-workers the concensus was still that the mail kansai Wa and the normal girl Wa are completely different. Though they couldn't elaborate why. Also, i can't seem to erase my downvote, so sorry about that
    – Mark Hosang
    Commented Jun 1, 2011 at 5:13
  • actually i was watching a japanese tv, and i heard a man (real man！) saying はやすぎるわ～！！when he was surprised by seeing how fast a baseball ball was. And I heard in a music "今日は先に行って待ってみるわ", its a man who composed and sings it. Is it weird? could it be another わ?
    – daniel tomio
    Commented Jun 25, 2011 at 22:30
  • [my dictionary says : わ indicates emotion or admiration]. but i don't know if it could be used by men naturally, because it could arouse to feminine　わ.
    – daniel tomio
    Commented Jun 25, 2011 at 22:34

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