# Misogynistic language and its defenders **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 26, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162 "2025-06-26T16:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/1 "2025-06-26T16:25:58Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/2 "2025-06-26T16:34:46Z")
From the thread that spawned this: > [@Fuck all you warmongering pieces of shit](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-all-you-warmongering-pieces-of-shit/1019962/431): > > In a different thread I called another poster’s boss a dick, and someone else called the boss an asshole, and she felt the need to point out that her boss was a woman. 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”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/3 "2025-06-26T16:34:50Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/4 "2025-06-26T16:44:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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”. 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. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/5 "2025-06-26T16:45:22Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/6 "2025-06-26T16:48:11Z")
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”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/7 "2025-06-26T16:50:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Even “chick” I’m a little uneasy with. 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. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/8 "2025-06-26T16:57:28Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > 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”. 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. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/9 "2025-06-26T16:59:31Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > 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. Try this, some insults insult immutable characteristics. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/10 "2025-06-26T17:06:51Z")
So you use severely misogynistic insults, but because you _claim_ to use them for both sexes, suddenly they are no longer misogynistic? _Rrriiiggghhhttt._🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/11 "2025-06-26T17:13:36Z")
> [@Fuck all you warmongering pieces of shit](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-all-you-warmongering-pieces-of-shit/1019962/431): > > From the thread that spawned this: > > > [@Fuck all you warmongering pieces of shit](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-all-you-warmongering-pieces-of-shit/1019962/431): > > > > In a different thread I called another poster’s boss a dick, and someone else called the boss an asshole, and she felt the need to point out that her boss was a woman. Seems to me that if “skank” is off limits, “dick” should be, as well. I can’t remember the last time I used either of those, if ever. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/12 "2025-06-26T17:28:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/13 "2025-06-26T17:30:41Z")
I’m on board with Sylvanz and puzzlegal and crowmanyclouds. It is the case that my wife (female) has made occasional reference to my (male) skanky feet. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/14 "2025-06-26T17:50:25Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/15 "2025-06-26T17:54:48Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Just why are grown up, adults calling people nasty names? Humans call each other nasty names. Believing otherwise is childish. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/16 "2025-06-26T17:56:53Z")
I’d rather be a whoremonger than a warmonger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/17 "2025-06-26T18:03:09Z")
Oh, thanks for calling me a child for not liking ugly names, very grown up of you @Atamasama. Real nice. (My point made) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/18 "2025-06-26T18:06:13Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Just why are grown up, adults calling people nasty names? > > What are we, 3rd graders? > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Oh, thanks for calling me a child for not liking ugly names Tell me you see it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/19 "2025-06-26T18:06:23Z")
I actually remember that. I so wanted to say something. I can’t remember the poster. I’d name them, if I could. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162/20 "2025-06-26T18:07:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I actually remember that. > > I so wanted to say something. > I can’t remember the poster. I’d name them, if I could Aw, thanks! 💓💯 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misogynistic-language-and-its-defenders/1020162.md?page=2)