Only women are vulgar

Through the Scribbler, I found out about this Wikipedia weirdness.
Under the entry for ‘woman’, there is a vulgar terms section. The entry for ‘man’ has no such section. I think there are plenty of gender-specific vulgarities for the boys, no?
But I digress. This lovely collection of vulgar “woman” terms at Wikipedia made me remember this exercise a professor of mine did the first day of class (I’ve brought this up before, but I think it’s that important):
What’s the worst possible thing you can call a woman?
You’re probably thinking of words like slut, whore, bitch, cunt, skank.
Now what are the worst things you can call a guy? Fag, girl, bitch, pussy.
The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl. The worst thing you can call a guy is a girl. Like Tiffany at BlackFeminism notes, “most slurs that are directed at men somehow have to do with feminization and/or homosexuality.” It all comes down to one thing. Being a woman is the ultimate insult. Ouch.

Join the Conversation