From a fopdoodle to an idiot, the English language never seems to be experiencing a drought from its vast catalog of insults. Despite the myriad of options available, why is it that the most common insults we hear day-to-day are associated with women and femininity?
Gender-based insults for women are mainly related to body parts, sexuality, age/marital status, and animals, with many of these being paired (I hope you are in no need of examples). In society, women are often stigmatized, which influences our use of language. However, it is uncommon for a word to be founded with implications against women. More often than not, the offensive word has gone through the process of pejoration. This is when a word’s connotation shifts from being positive or neutral to negative. Take the word “hussy” for example. Presently, it is used as an insult to describe a woman who has many casual sexual relationships. But when looking at the etymology of this word, it came from the term “housewife”, then spelt “husewif”, or the mistress of the house. By the 1600s, the word started to experience a semantic shift through pejoration, often being used to refer to a girl or woman who acted inappropriately.
It is theorised that women bearing the bulk of insults is due to society’s expectations for women to be docile and innocent, and for men to be aggressive. This leads to language being biased, mirroring the double standards set in place within Western society. For instance, there are times when insults associated with women are desirable qualities in men. This is exemplified through insults synonymous with being promiscuous (you can think of one), whereas most men would be called a Casanova and celebrated. Additionally, if a woman is controlling or stubborn, she is labelled as “bossy” or…a female dog, while a man is likely to be called strong or powerful.
Furthermore, when it comes to insulting a man, society often treats femininity as the worst offense. As said by Amanda Montell: “If you want to insult a woman, call her a prostitute. If you want to insult a man, call him a woman.” This, again, is attributed to patriarchal standards equating feminine traits with weakness and inferiority and masculinity with aggression and power. This is deeply unfortunate as it ridicules men for their individuality, while simultaneously teaching them that to be a woman is to be weak.
To answer the aforementioned question in short, derogatory terms are associated with women because of social expectations, misogyny, inequality, and stereotypes. In the end, this practice hurts everyone, not just women. Therefore, I believe that we should choose our words more carefully and be more constructive to one another. And if you really feel like insulting someone, be more creative with your approach!
Here are some silly gender-neutral insults:
Fopdoodle: A fool or an insignificant person.
Foozler: Someone who is clumsy.
Hornswoggler: A fraud or cheat.
Cumberworld: A useless person who “encumbers the world.”
Bibliography:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4166707?mag=the-language-of-nasty-women-and-other-gendered-insultshttps://daily.jstor.org/the-language-of-nasty-women-and-other-gendered-insults/https://gen.medium.com/a-cultural-history-of-feminine-nouns-turned-into-insults-4f6d49a3e4behttps://www.cambridge.org/core/blog/2024/11/15/sluts-bitches-and-battle-axes-women-and-insults/