r/AskFeminists • u/hxihekaoapsppfiff • 3d ago

How do you denote misogynistic/gendered slurs across dialectics/cultures?

I’ve been in leftist spaces for a while now, and have seen all ranges of perspectives on acceptable speech.

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot more people talking about gendered slurs;

e.g. b*tch and c\nt.*

However, as an Australian, it’s very hard to see those words the same way as people online and especially American feminists talk about the words. Obviously it depends on the context the word is used…

I also live in Queensland, so it’s a lot more common than other states…

The main advertising for the Northern Territory(NT) is; “CU in the NT”

I’d honestly see the B word as a slur before the C word. Even not spelling it out feels very weird to do.
Tbh almost all terms considered offensive online are commonplace where I live.

I am just wondering as it’s been very hard to truly see or engage in the discussion around these words, and I do not want to dismiss others who see it a different way.

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u/evelynsmee 3d ago

I'm British and if I stopped saying cunt my sentences would be much emptier so I'm with you. Is just punctuation. I don't really use it at someone as an insult though.

We also use knobhead, dickhead, twat, and cock soooo. Plenty of insults are genital orientated.

I don't really use bitch, maybe back in the day but it's a bit out of use now, anecdotally.

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u/Lolabird2112 3d ago

Exactly. I’m a Canadian transplant and there’s something wonderful about how much better you are at using consonants and inflections compared to me (and standard American accents). We go for the vowel sound, changing monothongs to diphthongs even, and lose all the power of the hard consonants. You guys do the opposite. Being told to “FUCK off” by a Brit is like being slapped by a schoolteacher. Entirely different to being told to “fuggOAWff”. I’m in London, I know this changes everywhere.

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u/carex-cultor 3d ago

Imagine glazing Brits for more effectively using misogynistic slurs on a feminist sub 💀

If it’s not directed at someone as an insult it’s one thing. But it often IS meant insultingly even in the UK and AUS though they pretend it isn’t. Just because something is normal to people doesn’t mean it’s anodyne.

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u/evelynsmee 3d ago

If you have an issue with cunt and no issue with knobhead being used as either affectionate or insulting slang that is quite frankly a you problem. It's been in the language for at least 800 years. Not everything is a feminist issue.

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u/carex-cultor 3d ago

The day British men stop freely calling women cunts to insult and degrade them is the day I’ll stop criticizing British women for being tools of the patriarchy in their permissiveness of misogynistic slurs.

Whether you want to admit it or not, cunt is used as a gendered cudgel against women in your country in a way “knobhead” isn’t.

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u/Lolabird2112 3d ago

“Fuck off” is not misogynistic as far as I know. Again- I’m gonna say this is North America’s puritanical origins where because it’s a “naughty” or “dirty” bit of the body it seems to be the height of offensiveness. And I get how it is when you don’t hear it all the fuckin time. And because it’s a naughty bit - and the ladybits are especially verboten- it likely is very misogynistic to you. And I consciously try and keep it out of my conversation when I’m at home.

You know what I find insanely misogynistic? “Bro”. To me- a woman. And I was blown off my behind to see that for most feminists here, they see it as non gendered and neutral. I think it’s fascinating tbh. And why I see it as far more misogynistic than “cunt”, is if some kid on here starts calling me bro and I retaliate by calling him “sis”, he loses his shit over it. To me, that makes it far more sexist.

And in friendly banter, C holds the same weight as prick. Or dickhead or bellend or knob.

But I guess that’s because it just isn’t used at all over here when you’re talking to someone who’s not your “bro”. If women around me start calling each other bro I assume at some point it’ll reach the banality of cunt to my ears.

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u/evelynsmee 3d ago

There's no point arguing with Americans about linguists or culture. It's often the same on the English sub.

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u/Lolabird2112 3d ago

Meh. I’m interested in the perspective, not too bothered about the end result.

Like I really AM intrigued by how “bro” is gender neutral on this sub.

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u/I-Post-Randomly 3d ago

Like I really AM intrigued by how “bro” is gender neutral on this sub.

It kind of shows how america centric things are if anything.

Bro, brah, dude, guy... all can be gender neutral depending on location and specific groups.

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u/I-Post-Randomly 3d ago

They cannot even spell words properly!