pejorative terms for men and women

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:27 PM -0400 8/1/07, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>I must have accidentally deleted Larry Horn's comments (citing feminist
>theory) to the effect that there are many potentially perjorative terms for
>women-as-women (not only CUNT and TWAT, COW and BITCH and HORSE, but
>also SKIRT,
>BROAD, DAME, DIKE, etc.) but none for men (except PRICK, which, as
>Larry points
>out, is not really parallel to to CUNT and TWAT in its meaning and use; FAGGOT
>is another special case).
>
>I'm not sure that he mentioned it, but it is also the case that even the word
>WOMAN itself can be used pejoratively (e.g., as a term of address), whereas
>MAN generally has positive connotations.
>
>On the other hand, there are such terms as LOUT and PALOOKA that (like BROAD
>and DAME) seem to carry generally pejorative connotations but can only be used
>about men. Likewise LECHER and RAKE (though they parellel WHORE and SLUT).
>
>My students usually agree that ASSHOLE can only be used about men, though
>perhaps that is changing. (I think ASSHOLE has been discussed
>earlier on ADS-L?)
>I'd add SCUMBAG to this list (though when I say it, Ann Coulter does come
>vaguely to mind).
>
"He's a scumbag":  11800
"She's a scumbag":   2300

"He's an asshole":  67900
"She's an asshole": 16700

Gender is a statistically significant predictor of assholism and
scumbaggery, but not decisive.  (Notice that there are more [alleged]
female assholes than there are [alleged] scumbags of either sex.)

LH

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