In the warmongers thread the subject of misogynistic language has come up again.
Skank is misogynistic and it amazes me how often people feel the need to use these terms, and defend them as not a big deal, not really misogynistic, and how those of us who object need to lighten up, oh, and isn’t at all comparable to racism or antisemitism.
You want to use the words I can’t stop you, but I will call you out on it.
Skank is a woman specific insult. I’d be royally pissed if someone called me or my daugher that or any woman. It means not just, " promiscuity" but questionable hygiene and low, “class.”
That kind of proves the point, though… People were using those words of the boss without knowing her gender. But nobody would ever call someone of unknown gender a “skank”.
Yeah, skank, slut, whore are all out of my vocabulary. Even “chick” I’m a little uneasy with. That one’s a know your audience. That said, I can’t remember the last time I heard “skank” used earnestly, or at all. Not common in my environment. Feels dated.
We both had assumed the boss was a man, and I at least would have used a different term if I knew she was a woman.
Maybe ‘skanky’ is more insulting in America, IDK. I just think it’s dumb to get upset over a particular type of insults, even something very mild, but shrug your shoulders over someone saying genuinely cruel and hurtful things to another person.
I agree that skank is nasty, female-coded, and feels dated. I’m really surprised that Mundane_Super_Hero uses that word. I guess i don’t know the poster very well.
I don’t trust my memory as to whether I assumed the boss was a man. But I use “asshole” for both sexes. After all, everyone has one. I rarely use “dick”, and only for men. I never use “skank”.
It does bother me that even the “complimentary” words for a woman are infantilized. A “chick” is a young bird. A “babe” is an infant. And of course, people are a lot more likely to refer to an adult woman as a “girl” than they are to refer to an adult man as a “boy”, even (or maybe especially) in contexts where it’s very important that the person in question be an adult.
You said in the thread that you had envisioned a male supervisor.
I never use skank, and rarely use ‘cunt’, but I use it for both sexes.
The way this discourse strikes me is as if you see one person stab another, and while the second person is lying on the floor bleeding, bystanders start objecting to the type of knife the attacker used.
Just why are grown up, adults calling people nasty names?
What are we, 3rd graders?
Maybe, start with that.
Personally, I’m doing that, as best I can.
I found out right here on this board how ugly people can be. I have never been called nasty names(out loud, to my face) since grade school. But I have been, here. It’s not pleasant.
It doesn’t make you sound smart to name call.
It’s reprehensible to hurt people that you’re speaking to(not politicians or famous persons, a real person, behind a screen but a real person, with feelings and a bit of a soft skin and heart).
The word skank is awful. Should not be in an adults vocab.
I’m chalking it up to the whole trumpian filthy thinking world we live in. And, the belief we’re invisible typing on a keyboard.
I’m sure all of you are familiar with the phrase, “institutionalized racism”, and understand its meaning. Well, “institutionalized sexism”, is quite alive and well world wide. People have attitudes and use language that they learned growing up. It’s take a long, persistent effort to fight that stuff.
I have chosen a single lifestyle. Single men, historically, have been viewed as “swinging bachelors”, men who are to be admired by their male peers. I, on the other hand, have often been the recipient of innuendoes implying that I should be married and rearing children and, because I am not, I’m a slut for playing the field. It’s two totally different views based on gender.
Without going into details or naming anyone, I had a male poster say as much to me in a thread about a year or so ago. Not wanting to create ill feelings, I let it go.