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atashi is being very soft and sweet, almost romantic - very feminine. I'd probably blink a lot if I saw anyone using it in public. I can't even imagine a situation in which a male would use it - even if he was gay (except perhaps in a very private chat between two lovers and then I certainly wouldn't be in earshot).
You'll mostly only hear it used in public by songstresses crooning torrid love songs.
I'll differ from a Mystique a bit... everything I've read implies that males under a certain age will use boku if they're using a self-referential noun at all. Males over 20-something will tend to not use self-referential nouns but will use "watashi" in casual business chatter (especially in terms of "watashi no ..." to indicate ownership).
Japanese in general almost always drop the "I/me" words if they're the subject of the sentence.
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