It occurred to me when I decided to do this project in 1991 that there were so many more derogatory terms for women than there were for men. Then I started to think about the actual names themselves and I noticed a few themes:
1. Many terms, both terms considered nice and terms considered rude, were less-than-human, whether they be inanimate objects, animals, foods, or what have you, that somehow became descriptions for women.
2. There was a much greater number of mean slang terms for women who were promiscuous than for men (for men, it was something to be proud of, so slang terms were not derogatory but complimentary).
3. There was a much greater incidence of jokes and phrases about women being either stupid or promiscuous than men.
4. Terms for sex with women (terms used predominantly by men) were often sports analogies, references to power tools and other historically masculine objects, or by nature violent.
I originally thought of taking photographs of what these terms really are (and not of their slang definition) in order to show how ludicrous the contrast was to what the terms have come to mean in our society.
The jump to make the following pages a reference tool for men in order to help them degrade women with their terminology was to provide an additional point of contrast: these pages, the way they are designed, are to make it look like this name-calling is a conscious effort on the part of all men to degrade women with the terms they use.
The reason why I did this is because although the effort is not made consciously, and although this conscious effort as displayed on the following pages seems humorous, the current effect of this spectrum of terms for women has the same result as if it was a concerted movement. No, it isnt a concerted movement: its worse; it is second nature to everyone.
After realizing this, I felt that displaying these points humorously and sarcastically would make it a better engine for making people think about the language they use in describing women.
a book for men
Hey, all you men out there - do you remember the time when life was simple - when a man was a man and a woman knew her place? Well, we think its time you had your say. Introducing the mans guide for derogatory terms for women!!be vicious! be malicious! put women in their place!
now, the key to
you can easily do this by calling wo
(we know theyre thinking adults, but by calling them names that are less than that, they will eventually feel like less than human beings.)
to
(by referring to them as children, like baby, babe or girl.terms like these are less effective, since they are so commonplace, but can still degrade women, so use them liberally)(and they can even sound like compliments
like
...but degrading women by calling them kinds of animals or kinds of food only begins to scratch the surface.
there are other ways to turn women into objects
other names you can have for wo
instead of them as a whole human being or you can even objectify the act of sex!
you can call them a
try some degrading jokes about women!
what do women and beer bottles have in common?
why do women wear panties?
whats the difference between a woman and a bowling ball?
what do you call a prostitute and three blondes walking down the street?
why is a beer better than a woman?
what makes a perfect woman?
what is the flabby skin around a vagina?
call then sluts!
call them anything that defines them as a sexual object!
and remember, men -
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