Yael Silver

I have been working on a project recently. My project has been to eliminate all gendered swear words from my daily use. Gendered to me means where the word comes from so, bitch referring to a female or dick referring to a male. As I made a list in my head of all the words I could no longer use I was surprised at how many there were. All the words that I typically used as playful insults with my friends were now off-limits.

I then looked deeper into the meaning behind the words I wasn’t using, not their literal meaning, but their meaning in the context of today’s usage. For example slut and whore (which I included in my “off-limits” words), both refer to a woman’s sexuality and promiscuity. Not only that, but when my mother was repeatedly calling some girls sluts she was referring to their clothing. Next is bitch and cunt which refer to a woman’s behavior. However, the definitions make the cut much deeper when these words are inflicted on you. A bitch is not just a badly behaving woman, it is a badly behaving woman who is being compared to a female dog. A cunt is an insult as well as another term for the vagina.

Then the male terms. I’ll start with dick. A dick, as well all know, is another way to say penis. It is also an insult saying: “you are being just like a dick, uncontrollable.” While ...