Tactlessly, Insensitively Feminist
I guess most human languages have been much more hostile towards women than men, in regards to sex life style (which is basically where words are the most hurtful.) For example, in English we have, as far as I can tell off the top of my head after a sleepless night, the following words to describe women as having loose morals or a certain lifestyle:
- slut
- hussy
- whore
- escort
- harlot
- hooker
- trollop
- meretrix (Bet you didn’t know this one! Had to look up the exact spelling myself.)
- strumpet
- courtesan
- prostitute
- streetwalker
I bet you can find twenty more words like these if you consult a dictionary. There is no funny story here, no amusing anecdote. Only a few millenia of human nature and men’s cruelty and search for domination. What better criterium than gender? What better line to divide humanity and make sure you are on the side of the winners and can never be pushed across?
What division is more cruel and yet more deviously natural? What bind and shackle is more unbreakable?
What justice can rule like this? What humanity can exist? What kind of men are we if we are not human?
I do agree with the fact that the language has been hostile towards women in general. But most of the words you listed there are used both for men and women. Sometimes for clarity they add a “male” or “man” to it, like man-whore or male-prostitute. You also need to take into account that 99.9% of prostitutes are female and in most countries even if prostitution is legal for woman under some conditions, male prostitution is illegal.
I’d rather look suspicious towards the fact that the majority of such cases happen with women. Why is it more acceptable to be a prostitute as a woman? Not that I’m for it or anything, but this is a sad reality in any society (including Iran) that woman are pushed towards this as the last possible source of income.
I think that shows how bad women were toward men in history of humankind, since these words are used mostly from men toward them.
@test84:
Really? It shows that? I don’t think so.
It may show how unnatural the inequality was, so that men had to use not only a lot of muscle, social power and mind conditioning, but also verbal and lingual means too in order to make sure of their own dominion.
@MatGill
I believe the illegality of prostitution for men is because of the fact that male prostitution is either a sign of illness (sexually – best-case scenario) or licentiousness!
But 99.9% of female-prostitutions are signs of women’s miserable lives.
Men mostly do it on their own will but women are almost always forced and pushed to it.
@MatGill:
OK, it seems that I should have clarified a bit more. While the issue of prostitution is socially relevant and painful, it wasn’t my point of interest here. It is true that some of these words can be used to describe a specific profession as well, besides their other use (or only use, as is the case for some of the above words) as profanity and insult.
Have you ever encountered the words “hussy”, “trollop”, “slut” or “strumpet” (hail the Brave New World!) among many others be used for men?
The only word that comes to my mind for men is “philandering”, and that hardly qualifies as a harsh word, let alone an insult!
As I said, I totally agree with you on the fact that the language is generally more hostile towards the female kind. But to answer your question, yes, I’ve encountered the use of “slut” for men, in a figurative way (not meaning that he is actually a prostitute). And, by the way, I have not heard of the other 3. As you know, I’m a good boy! (this just reminded me of the gay bar joke I dropped a few posts ago
)
Oh, come on! I was trying to forget that image!
Dear yzt, It is obvious why language is hostile towards women, it is the direct effect of hostile behavior of men toward women. And you know why is that? delight in cruelty.
That’s exactly my point.
My other point is that the measure of how civilized we are, how cultured we are, how human we are is not how much MP3 we have on our iPod or how many times we go to the movies or how well we treat animals or the rain forest.
First and foremost, it’s how we treat the other half of humanity (this is for men and women alike, but men have been far far crueler to women that the other way around.)