# The word "douchebag" (used as an insult) is classless and overused **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680 "2008-12-18T02:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/41 "2008-12-19T16:15:07Z")
I don’t know your location, but for my whole life, wherever I’ve lived “douche bag” was never overused. I can’t remember actually hearing anyone IRL saying it. I’ve only said it myself once or twice and not TO anyone, but ABOUT someone (once was about a newspaper movie critic who spoiled “Million Dollar Baby,” for me and I don’t remember the other occasion.) For some reason, when I hear someone say it, I think it’s funny, not offensive, just because it’s so old school, like pantywaist or something. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/42 "2008-12-19T16:23:04Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > While I don’t disagree with where you’re coming from, what surprises me is that this angle (as you can see from the responses) is not very common at all. Most people use the term as a mild-to-medium substitute for greater obscenity, without really thinking about the origin or literal meaning of the term. > > Which to me, suggests that you knew what a “douche” was before hearing the term “douchebag” as an insult. This is puzzling, especially if you’re a guy, because I definitely heard people calling each other douchebags as a pre-teen or early teen, and was much older before I learned what a “douche” was: I took French in High School and learned that “douche” was French for “a shower”, accompanied by giggling from a few girls, and conversations ensued. (Most of the boys, and more than a few of the girls also didn’t know what a douche really was.) Yes, you are right - even though I’m male, I’ve known what a “douche” was long before I started hearing it used as an insult (probably because of some early-80s daytime TV commercial). I suppose the word is at the point where the “mild insult” meaning is a lot more widely known than the “real” meaning (which probably goes by some other term now). So yeah, most people wouldn’t consciously have any nasty intentions… But what I find classless in general is when guys _consciously_ pick an insult term that references women’s bodies… as if it’s not enough to insult some other guy, they also have to take a shot at women while they’re at it. If women aren’t offended then I won’t bother to get that offended either… (and as mentioned earlier, you can sort of spin d-bag as being a female-empowering insult) but I still wouldn;t use it. [QUOTE=Marley23] I agree that objecting to the provenance of “douchebag” is pointless. Consider where insults comes from: they all either a necessary biological part or function (asshole, shit), or are a term for someone with a mental disability that was once a medical term that is now offensive (imbecile, idiot), or they’re judgments of behavior that aren’t your business or that the speaker may not even disapprove of (cocksucker, whore). I think that’s pretty cross-cultural. Why is douchebag better or worse than any of the other insults out there in this regard? I also still disagree that the word is sexist, edgewise or otherwise. [/QUOTE] Those other “body function” words are considered harsh swear words and have the power to be real conversation killers … whereas d-bag is considered mild and heard all over the place on TV, radio and creeping into everyday conversation… I was more objecting to its casual acceptance than its use as a harsh insult. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/43 "2008-12-19T16:32:28Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > I am actually a man. This isn’t my attempt at fake online chivalry, but I could never utter a term like “douchebag” without feeling my flesh creep. Even Howard Stern doesn’t seem to use that word. What? Have you ever heard his show? He’s the first person I think of when I hear douche and its variants, and the first person I thought of when I saw this thread. I’m pretty confident that he’s largely responsible for the current popularity of the term. ---
**Author:** ![rhythmonly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@rhythmonly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhythmonly)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/44 "2008-12-19T16:47:21Z")
I do not use Douchebag as an insult. I use it as a nickname for those fruit drinks that come in the foil sacks. My son was with me at the grocery store a while back, and I asked him if he wanted to get a box of them. He said “Your sister calls them Juice Bags.” I didn’t hear him clearly, and thought that he said Douchebag. Now when we’re in the drink aisle, I ask him what he wants to drink. “Douchebag.” “WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?” ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/45 "2008-12-19T17:47:26Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > What? Have you ever heard his show? He’s the first person I think of when I hear douche and its variants, and the first person I thought of when I saw this thread. I’m pretty confident that he’s largely responsible for the current popularity of the term. You might be right. I don;t have satellite radio and have only listened to clips of him since then. But I honestly cannot remember him using the word and I do listen to his clips fairly often. On the other hand, some other DJs on the radio constantly spew the word as if they have hay fever. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/46 "2008-12-19T17:49:09Z")
I agree that it’s a little weird that a cleaning product is used as an insult which is why I only use douchebag as a descriptor. On the other hand a douchefucker is a guy who is such a loser that the closest he can get to a vagina is fucking the used douche. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/47 "2008-12-19T18:25:14Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Those other “body function” words are considered harsh swear words and have the power to be real conversation killers … whereas d-bag is considered mild and heard all over the place on TV, radio and creeping into everyday conversation… I was more objecting to its casual acceptance than its use as a harsh insult. Crap isn’t a conversation killer. You can call all kinds of crap crap and nobody gives a crap. Shit’s a bigger deal. I’ll never understand that one. Some curse words are harsher than others, there’s really no logic to it beyond how people feel about it. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/48 "2008-12-19T20:41:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > But, in most cases, it _doesn’t_ clean vaginas and leaves them [worse off](http://www.vivawoman.net/2008/11/03/vaginal-douching-nay-or-yay/) (especially the scented kind. Eww.). I don’t even think most modern teenage or 20-something women even know exactly what a douche is, or have ever had it recommended by a doctor (unless we’re talking backwards last resort abortion methods). Well, that’s because they weren’t using Lysol. Yes, that was actually a “suggested use” of Lysol. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/49 "2008-12-19T20:57:19Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I suppose it’s common [not to know what a douche is] if you were 29 and didn’t have any family who were gynocologists, or medical professionals of any kind, or have any sisters…or girlfriends…and never watched daytime television…and never spent any time around 11 year olds. Please to explain this? I have never seen douches advertised on daytime TV, at least not realizing that that’s what it was; the only “female sanitary products” I can recall seeing advertised on TV are tampons and pads. And I’ve never lived with a female who has used one. And, are you saying that 11 year olds use douches?? We can all agree that 11-year-olds use the terms “douche” and “douchebag”, but from personal experience, many if not most of them have no idea what the original, literal meaning is. In fact, I’d say that I hear the word “douche” used as a synonym or abbreviation for “douchebag” (“he’s such a douche”) much more often than I ever hear it in reference to a sanitary product. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/50 "2008-12-20T04:27:45Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Please to explain this? I have never seen douches advertised on daytime TV, at least not realizing that that’s what it was; the only “female sanitary products” I can recall seeing advertised on TV are tampons and pads. And I’ve never lived with a female who has used one. Maybe you didn’t realize exactly what they were advertising, but I remember those “Do you ever get that…not-so-fresh feeling?” commercials up through the 1990’s. I even remember stand-up comedians (and comediennes) making fun of them. I was not aware, however, that the word “douchebag” was a common insult until rather recently. In my personal experience, it’s only a common insult on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/51 "2008-12-20T05:36:53Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > I was not aware, however, that the word “douchebag” was a common insult until rather recently. In my personal experience, it’s only a common insult on the internet. It’s been part of men’s conversational slang since at least the early seventies, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680/52 "2008-12-20T06:10:12Z")
I don’t use the term b/c everytime I hear it, I think of this part of the movie _…And Justice For All_ \ [Officer Leary is on the witness stand] Officer Leary: I told him to move on, but he continued to use profanity and he refused to leave the premises. Judge Rayford: What sort of profanity? Officer Leary: You know, the normal kind. Judge Rayford: Officer Leary, we’ve all heard these words before, now for the record what did he say? Officer Leary: [uncomfortably] He used… ”fuck" a lot. [quiet laughter from the gallery] Officer Leary: …”piss on you"… [more laughter] Officer Leary: …then said he was gonna… ”bung-hole the short order chef"… ”cream on the waitress"… [more laughter] Officer Leary: …stuff like that, Your Honor. Dapper Defendant: There’s a very good reason for all of that, Your Honor. Judge Rayford: Oh? What is that? Dapper Defendant: I’m a diabetic. [loud laughter from the gallery] Judge Rayford: I fail to see the connection. I’ve never heard of diabetes causing foul language! Dapper Defendant: That’s because you’re a douchebag. [entire courtroom erupts into laughter, including Officer Leary before he catches himself and forces a poker face] Just calling someone a douche doesn’t make me think of it, but ‘douchebag’ always does and it always makes me giggle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-douchebag-used-as-an-insult-is-classless-and-overused/477680.md?page=2)