Graphic by Anjali Rao-Herel ’22
Swear words have become an integral part of our everyday vocabulary to vent out our anger and frustration, or to use as an offensive insult. For instance, I often find myself swearing while driving in traffic or when stubbing my toe. A subset of the swear words commonly used are sexist and derogatory to women. Removing gendered profanity from modern culture is imperative — it’s alright to swear and vent frustration, but it can be done without disrespecting women.
Swear phrases can be sexist by comparing them to the superiority of men or by targeting women who do not conform to the expected behavior of society. For example, the swear word “bastard” refers to a child born of an unwed mother, playing on ideas of immoral sex. This shows conventions and stereotypes circling the conception of women’s purity and the sanctity of marriage over sexual practices outside of marriage.
This idea is reflected in other common swear words as well, such as “son of a bitch.” The word bitch refers to a female dog and is itself used as a swear word. The supplementing word for it is not a slur meant for the male dog, but rather is the son of a female dog. In this process, the weight of the swear word is still placed upon the female.
Similarly, ‘whore’ and ‘slut’ are also insults that are part of a long history of shaming female sexuality. ‘Slut’ and ‘whore’ began to take on negative sexual connotations in the 15th and 16th centuries. Even men can be described as a “manwhore” or “manslut.” The man is still being insulted in terms used to degrade women for their sexuality.
The use of swear words which implicitly put down women is a setback in the feminist movement. Why should the suggestion of promiscuity be viewed as an insult?
Ankita Anand argues on a similar note in piece in The Hindu titled “Cuss words can be so sexist, I swear.” Anand argues that swear words are part of a patriarchal discourse, following how words such as “motherf*cker” and “f*cking” perpetrate ideas of men as “eternal doers” and women as “done-upons.”
She challenges the suggestion made by some feminists that women should use words applicable to men, arguing instead that even “using these terms now in a gender-neutral way certainly doesn’t alter their sexist history,” and “is still a reductionist approach wherein the notion that femininity is an unfortunate quality to have remains frozen throughout time.”
These words mark only a few of the vast list of misogynistic words that have become a part of our nomenclature. The idea is not to do away with swearing altogether — I myself find the need to use words that concisely capture my anger or feelings. However, in this process, disrespect should not become ingrained in our language.
When I think about the phrase “watch your language,” I now think of it from this perspective; watch where your word comes from. Ankita Anand recounted how we have a growing dictionary with more words being added to it each year. In this framework, we must work to add more profanity that will not be rudely directed toward any group of people. Our words must no longer reflect ongoing prejudice.