A “stud” and a “slut” are the same thing, yet one (male) is positive and one(female) is negative. Similarly “dog” and “bitch.”
On the other hand “to mother” and “to father” are so far apart in meaning. So far, we had to start using “to parent.”
A lot of women use “girlfriend” to refer to any female friends, but if a man says it, he’s usually talking about his partner.
Which is annoying for lesbians like me, because if I had a lesbian girlfriend that I was in a relationship with, what would I call her?
I don’t know, but if a man talked about his “boyfriend” I’d assume that he was gay and was talking about his partner.
Pig in reference to a man usually means he either has poor sanitation or low standards for who he will have sex with
Pig in reference to a woman usually means she eats a lot.
Dog & bitch are most definitely not the same thing! Dog is a general term, referring to any canine. Bitch is specifically a subset, a female dog. (To dog breeders, it is even more specific – a female dog capable of reproduction. Thus excluding puppies & spayed females.) That’s a much smaller subset of ‘dogs’.
I don’t think those are equivalent at all.
To my mind, a “stud” is just a sexually attractive male. The female equivalent would be “fox.” Both are generally positive.
A “slut” is just a female who is not choosy about who she sleeps with; it doesn’t indicate anything about attractiveness. I think the closest male equivalent is “womanizer.” Both are negative.
In theory, Old Maid/Spinster and Life-long Bachelor should mean the same thing, but almost all recent usages of Life-long Bachelor I’ve heard recently meant “Gay”.
I wonder whether Annie was referring to the more metaphorical uses.
Imagine calling a guy “you old dog” (wink wink, nudge nudge).
Now try calling a woman “you old bitch.”
See which one gets the better reaction.
In addition, I’ve heard women referred to as dogs. When someone is trying to call them ugly. As for men, what you said.
Mistress and Mister (or Master) have drastically different meanings (though an English major may step in and tell me they’re not actually equivalent). Miss, Mrs., Ms. all have pretty specific implications while Mr. does not.
Mankind is often used to refer to all humans while womankind is only 50% of us.
The thing is, in contexts where bitch means female dog, dog means male dog. It’s a lot more like the womankind and mankind mentioned above, except there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent to humankind.
It’s not just canines, either . . .
Round here the male equivlent to a slut would be a buaya, which loosely translates to crocodile.
The nearest male equivlent to slut I could think of would be sleaze
Has anyone in human history ever used the word “manizer”? I’ve heard “man-eater,” which is often used negatively (and now you can have that earworm for the rest of the day).
ETA: Yes, I was thinking about “dog” and “bitch” as they are used to apply to people. “Dog” is a wink wink, nudge, nudge word; bitch is so low I rarely use it to apply to anyone. The one time I did in the office, it was ike an EF Hutton commercial–the whole place went dead silent as everyone was in a state of shock.
I think the B-word says more about the person who is using it than the person it’s being used to describe.
This is exactly what I was going to say. The underlying cultural attitude that traditionally considered sexually active men in a positive light and sexually active women in a negative light has eroded quite a bit as well. Today it is considered normal for women to have and enjoy sex with multiple partners, and men who are overly aggressive in their pursuit of sex are not considered role models.
Point of clarification: a male dog is known as a “dog.” A female dog is known as a “bitch.” So in that sense they are equivalent terms, even though as you point out both words also have other meanings.
For purposes of this discussion, most people who use the word “bitch” in describing a human female are not ascribing the traits of a dog to her. The male equivalent of “bitch” is “asshole”* and the connotation is the same.
- yes, a woman can be called an asshole. And a man can be called a bitch.
I’ve always found it interesting that there many, many words for "penis"and not a single one that men find offensive; while there are virtually no words for “vagina” that women consider acceptable. Recently I’ve heard women use the term “vagay-jay” but I suspect if men started using that word it would become offensive to women.
The distinction is even more obvious when you apply the terms to the genders that sport them. Call a man a prick or a dick or a cock – he might not like the sentiment but the word choice is not an issue. Call a woman a c*** – hey, I’m not even going to write that word.
Great example. I am so against that word that I don’t even think it.
Use it to describe a man and you’ll really see some fireworks. That is, if he leaves you conscious!
Men don’t find being called a dick offensive? 
Hooker (female) = sex worker
Hooker (male) = rugby player
He’s a bull of a man = his power is to be admired
She’s a cow of a woman = she’s horrible
Not as bad as being called the c-word.