2 years, 1 month ago-
The sexism of swear words. ( A large portion of swear words are misogynistic)
Lately, abusive and foul language has become a worldwide ‘cool’ subject. Every other kid on the streets speaks words that on would avoid especially in public and every second family has at least one or two defaulters who are bashed up every single day for taking such language in use in front of elders. Most of such swear words are misogynistic and point out to women. Swear words are largely being sexualized and there are ‘n’ number of children out there who do not even know the meaning of the words they use. It’s a shame. Why do people have to abuse others’ mothers and sisters or grandmothers? What is so fascinating in it? It is done usually because they say, women’s respect means a lot to men. Mind you, only the women belonging to their household make a difference to them, not every other woman. So the respect and reputation of every family has been ‘vested’ in the women of the house. These are the same women they treat like slaves and servants who cannot even step outside the house without their permission. Why is the society so stereotypical?
Swear words are one of the basic things in a lay man’s life that prove how misogynistic and sexist the society is. There could have been swear words that pointed out to men, but no. Why would there be such swear words? Only women are to be pointed out in this society. Plus women are sexually pointed out in all those words. This is absolutely unethical, disrespectful and unacceptable. The so called worship of women that people are used to in our society, all falls to level zero when such issues come up as they bring out the truth. Not only men, but each and every human here who uses these misogynistic swear words, needs to understand that they are not cool. I wouldn’t be a hypocrite but accept that I use swear words too, but definitely not sexist ones. I have neither preferred them as of now, nor will I in the future. So should the people of our society. If we break stereotypes and misogynistic ways of living at the glassroot level like this, we will be able to curb it at a greater angle too. It’s in our hands now, whether to ruin the world further, or to save whatever is left.
A woman myself,
Shubhangini ShaktawatSwear words which basically each person speaks easily without giving a thought to those words spoken and the meaning or effect on something or someone. Many use it very easily and frankly within their group, it seems that simple words or sentence but are misogyny in nature and somewhere it degrades one.
Mostly spoken words are one which relates to the female gender but it has nothing connected to a conversation with the women. While calling out names or during a conversation between peer groups, these words are common and spoken pointing out the gender because the words which are used somewhere are bluntly used and it lowers the value of gender.
If we give a thought to this, it makes it so easy for people to speak that word whether it is a casual conversation or teasing someone or during humor talks, and many more. On one hand, we say respect women treat them nicely but on the other hand these words and degrade on one’s gender is done by many knowingly or unknowingly, but is said by many. So, it is observed that even anyone who argues or talks, but one who is targeted is women gender be it she is not on fault then too she is only targeted.
I know these things won’t change easily and people won’t stop using them, but it can be reduced and can limit our words. Why speak the words which are not appropriate and target or makes it look one gender lower than the other.Swear words can be defined as words that are rude and offensive. Many swear words have sexist origins. In fact, the word “bad” could be seen as an offensive word. In Old English, it meant a derogatory term for effeminate men.
Swear words are often used as a way to blow off steam. When people are angry and want to release the anger they have, they use swear words.
Think of the amount of swear words existing today. Although you need not be intentionally sexist, you are still using these words as insults without knowing the origin of the words.
Words like b****, sl*t, and wh*** are extremely demeaning to women. It insults women and it means that they’re immoral in nature. But these words are still widely used as gender-neutral terms meaning that these words are used by and for men and women. But, it only affects women and degrades them.
Although words like mother*****, son of a b**** and ba***** are typically used as insults for men, it still insults women. You are calling their mothers and sisters derogatory terms which does not change a thing. Even if you try to change these words and try to not use sexist terms, it still doesn’t work.
Many women want to reclaim these words and switch some of these words but it still degrades women. It does not make sense to degrade other women just because we want to reclaim words. The origin of these words does not change even if we reclaim them.
If we found some alternatives to words we can use which aren’t degrading in nature, it would be better. We should teach other people and ourselves how to not use such words and to do research on words before using them. It is not good that we use words that we do not know the meaning of. So, we must think before we speak.As general, and potentially offensive, statements often do not impact us that much, sexist swear words may also be considered harmless. But the reality is far from it, as they have a long history of contributing to the demeaning of women. The use of these words raises more questions than answers about the intent or purpose of the speaker. Swear words are the last resort in anger. They are often used to vent out our frustration over a particular event or action. So, why do we choose to use such abusive swear words? Do we realize how demeaning these words are? Whether you agree or not, I believe that society has a problem with sexism, especially in our language.
Sexism is prevalent in our everyday conversations in ways we don’t realize. The language we use daily shapes the way we view ourselves and others.
By the same token, there are swear phrases that target women who step outside of their roles as caregivers by comparing them to men. The word “bitch” is based on popular ideas of women’s nurturing, slave-like nature and calls upon associations of negative masculinity by conjuring an image of a man who is not in his proper role as head of a household and employer. This makes the language implicitly transphobic by erasing identity categories for people who don’t swear. `Bitch’ is a slur evoking images of an untamed animal or a woman who is unruly, dangerous, and may not follow the social conventions of the time. This use points to the idea that social conventions are oppressive. The term is also used for women who do not conform to social norms and expectations which reinforces this idea that society oppresses women.Swear words are examples of the power of the language to enforce sexism. The male’s abilities and worth are enhanced, while the female is degraded by referring to them as a woman. The word bitch has more of a derisive connotation because it is an insult directed toward women, whereas the son of a bitch is considered milder because it is said about men. Swearing is not just a way to express emotion. It is also a powerful tool used to diminish someone through categorization and belittlement. When we use swear words as insults, we are relying on the fact that it will incite negative emotions in others by categorizing the person as something “less than”. Sexism is a way of seeing that distorts the way we relate to each other. The essence of sexist thinking is the idea that male and masculine are the norm (or ideal) forms, while everything else is a deviation from that. This manifests in grammar, therefore, with less valuable words attached to the feminine and women.
Swear words are used like the official language. People speaks these words very fluently and nobody even stops the person. When people are frustrated or angry they start using swear words. Even there are some people who use swear words in their normal conversations too.
The most common swear word is “son of a bitch” where bitch refers to a female dog and is itself used as a swear word. Why it can’t be used for male dog? The weight of the swear word is always placed upon the female.
Words like ‘whore’ and ‘slut’ are also insults that are part of a long history of shaming female sexuality in society. Even men can be described as a “manwhore”. Why when the words like whore and prostitute comes everyone thinks in mind of women only? Men are also prostitutes.The use of swear words which put women down. It is a setback in the feminist movements. Swear words are a part of patriarchal society, how words such as “motherf*cker” and “f*cking” implies men as “eternal doers” and women as “done-upons.” Why there are no swear words for male gender? People should use words which are gender neutral. Gender shouldn’t be involved in communication.
People shouldn’t change their good communication method due to others. They should try to change others communication way to make society better.Swear words are nothing but packets of anger and frustration hurled at other. Innocent as the definition seems, what sets them apart from any other expression of anger is the humiliating implications they are destined to evoke. When cussing at women, these words are direct attacks upon them, whereas when cussing at men, the intended humiliation takes a more circuitous route, via the females in his family (SOB, MF, SF or naming female sexual organs). It’s as if men cannot acquire ignominy on their own, unless there is a woman involved.
The patriarchal etymology of a significant subset of cuss words is deeply troubling. The word ‘bastard’ for instance is purposed with disgracing the recipient’s mother for having transgressed existing norms of sexuality. The same logic applies to SOB. Such words place the blame of dishonour not on the action of the recipient but on a woman’s defiance to patriarchy. When a narrative of ignominy is spun around such resistance, the male members of a family become even more oppressive and controlling of the women thereby strengthening the patriarchal structure.
A few other cuss words in usage are female sex organs. The motive behind this appears to be a denigration of the female body to an inferior stature, and looking down upon it. When women internalise such connotations that exist around their own body parts, they become discouraged from taking control of their sexuality. They move away from celebrating their bodies to forcing it to comply with existing sexist conventions.
The frequent use of such misogynist swears have desensitized us to their implications while simultaneously fortifying them in our unconscious minds. A major point of concern is that cuss words are instances of impulsive expression and that they become natural to our being. So does patriarchy, and that’s a scary thought.So what’s the next step? Tamannah Mishra and Neha Thakur’s ‘The Gaali project’ shows the way. The project aims to overthrow the rampant sexism in swears and instead promotes the use of unprejudiced words borrowed from various Indian languages. They collaborate with youngsters across the country to create memes and posters to popularise these words.
It’s time to update our vocabulary with cleaner swears!
Ok so, how many people among us never used a single swear word? I wonder if there’s any.
And how many of them have actually thought that what are they telling? Plenty, I guess. Most of us have that one friend who become the wisest and purest soul whenever you pronounce a single swear word and come with the questions like, have you ever thought what’s the meaning of those! And it’s irritating, cause who thinks the meaning of swear words? It’s just a word which make up for our anger or irritation by just insulting… What? Insulting what?Someone’s mother? Sister? Or sometimes it’s just an equal meaning of if you are like or behaving like a girl, though I wonder how a girl behaves which a normal human doesn’t, then it’s an insult to you.
Yes, think about it. How much abusive words we actually know which insults that man directly? ‘Most of the curse words that are spoken in our daily lives are sexist and misogynist in nature;even if it’s a man who is at the receiving end of the abuse, it’s the women of their families who are slut shamed by the abuser’ – says Babita Rai, a feminist writer and activist.
If we use words like son of a b****, we’re suggesting that his mother is actually the one who is bad or slut, there’s of course no problem with him directly. It’s in his mother’s provision, that he is bad, otherwise there’s no issue with him.
We often used to see among the school goers specially, that the boys are abusing each other with a statement like ‘girly’ or whether it’s abusive or not, the elder ones often tells not to cry like a girl. Again if we recite the incident where a woman is abusing another woman, what’s she using? She is using those same words which ends up abusing women.
So, at last, it’s only the women who can have fault, who can be abused for the sake of others. In other words, it’s abusive even being a woman. Yes, that’s a typical thinking but unfortunately true. The etymology of these swear words are mostly reflect the patriarchal nature of the society. And while we’re preaching those words, we’re actually promoting these sexism, willingly or unwillingly. Language and the words reflect mirror image of the society, we’re living in. And these words have patriarchy deeply rooted in them to let a woman never forget how society expect to see a woman and what she’ll be if she denies those social norms.
According to Rai, it’s not only a reflection of patriarchy, it’s a preacher of the ‘man-saver’ theory. As we use the terms like ‘mother f*****’, we’re establishing the same thought. It’s believed to condemn the free sexuality and liberation of a woman, her honour is tied up with her family’s. If someone dishonor her, it’ll lead to the dishonor of that family members.
Again, the abusive words are embracing the sexual violence the same time. Rape threats are given so casually within the use of its that it’s leading sexual violence as a reality.
Swear words like sl**s are passively used to make a woman feel inferior and to control them.
So, it’s basically a gender-biased insulting only for women.
So, though it’ll be a unnatural request, but we should stop using these sexist words.stop promoting sexism.Cuss words have really strong implications on our society, especially concerning men. We never see people using cuss words that have their brothers or fathers in them. The cuss words we use implies a threat and a sense of personality which makes us conclude that society thinks it’s women to be precious fragile objects that they consciously have to protect. Many times we also use some of our favourite cuss words to show close and affection. A study conducted at Keele University also suggested that swearing can increase your ability to withstand pain but our favourite curse words have a deeper sociological relevance.
Cuss words that we use our casteist, sexist classist, ableist and racist. Most of our cause words are located in deep-rooted patriarchy. The most commonly used cuss words in mainstream media include women and there’s a plethora of its regional variation. These are all profanities that depict women as sexual objects and dishonours the man associated with that woman. From the threat of rape and sexual violence to slut-shaming cuss words are often targeted towards the female family members of the other party involved in the fight. The roots of these gender profanities can be traced to the age-old discourse of female propriety. This implies that the men in the family on their women stripping them of any kind of agency. The culture of omnipresent to some degree in all known societies is a gendered phenomenon. It is the man in the family therefore who guard the women to ensure that the vital vulnerable family honour is not violated. n the sprawling lexicon of profanities is caste discrimination is incredibly apparent. Even professions are not spared from our language, many occupations are just thrown around like cuss words. There are racist flowers that people and abusing against people from northeast India, Nepal Ladakh and other mountain regions. Simply to call somebody blind, deaf, dumb or mental is ableist and makes light of the condition of people with disabilities. These words thrown around so casually serve to dehumanized those from oppressed and minority groups and act as a reflection of how society perceives them as non-entities.Cussing or swearing has, sadly, been an integral part of our culture. While we use it to basically show our anger or displeasure, but we tend to use certain word that are related to sex, religion, region etc in order to make other feel ashamed, a kind of psychological warfare. Cussing or swearing is not a bad thing, it is a part of our emotion related to anger, and it is a way to express it. What makes it problematic is when we start using such words, which disparage a particular sex. In this case, females have been a constant center of attack. We associate cussing, by involving females, as a mean to assain the respect and dignity of the person who we are saying to. But in reality, we are disrespecting the whole female community. It is really saddening to see that in 2021, we are still going on by the archaic practices
The whole idea of using females or woman by using women special cuss words originates from the old age customs and social factors, that regarded females as the property of males, a prized property upon which the males have a huge pride and ego factor riding on. So by disrespecting the prized possession, one basically attacks the ego of a person. By using female cuss words, we are also fueling the age old custom whic mandates that a man is muscular and should be strong and powerful. Cussing involving female words tries to mock males as femine and weak. They whole idea is so skewed that we are disrespecting the whole female community and are just leaving them to a mete comodity.
We have moved well into the 21st century and are aiming towards equality. These feudal terms and associating the females as a comodity of man should be stopped. We need to learn that these practices are not helping the spread of equality. We need to realise that in modern terms, we have to leave behind such disgusting practices
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.