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Do women tend to use the word 'adorabile' more often than men do?
And also, should men rather avoid using this word when describing something they liked, as, for example, 'queste scarpe sono davvero adorabili'.
I hope this question doesn't sound too sexist, though to an extent it is, of course, because, as far as I know, but I could be incorrect, I have heard such a word used like in the example above only by male gays. Nontheless, I wouldn't exclude differences in regional usages.
It is a fact that in the Italian language the verb "adorare" is used mainly when referring to God, or a deity in general. With the same meaning it can be used when referring to a person of the opposite sex, used as an equivalent of "to love" with an hyperbolic meaning (like "I love my wife like if she was a goddess" = "I adore my wife", in Italian "amo mia moglie come una dea" = "adoro mia moglie").
Any other way of using the verb is uncommon, and therefore using it while speaking conveys the message that the speaker is either a very cultivated person or tries to talk with refined expressions which the speaker learned from some source.
As Matteo Italia said, the verb is widely used for stereotypical male homosexual fictional characters, and trying to talk imitating those will convey the message that you want to be identified as a gay person.
In particular referring to some common clothing with the verb "adorare", which gives a divine meaning to the object, explains the importance the speaker gives to clothing, which is culturally more common for Italian females than for Italian males.
The adjective adorabile in Italian is used only to refer to something really nice or lovely, but, for what concerns my experience, in nowadays language the adjective hasn't any reference to God, while the verb adorare can in fact be used for God in the sense of venerare (to worship) AND in the sense of piacere (to adore)for material things.
In answer to your question, I think adorabile is used almost only by women, and no exceptions has come to my mind. Men tend to use other expressions, like fantastico, carino, perfetto, forte, depending on the context. I notice that these expressions are less strong than adorabile. For instance, a woman might say '' questa macchina è adorabile! '' whereas a man just can't say it. '' Questa macchina è forte!'' would be a good alternative.
