Transcript Document
BITCHES AND SKANKY HOBAGS
The Place of Women in Contemporary Slang
By Laurel A. Sutton (1992)
Lydia Chow
Linguistics 187
April 6, 2012
Part I
OVERVIEW
BACKGROUND
Previous studies suggested that women are “linguistic conservatives”
• Usage of prestigious features to establish social status
Graddol and Swann (1989) – evaluations of speech involve complex
notions of femininity and masculinity
• Interaction with mixed-sex and single-sex groups vary widely
Slang is used to establish aspects of social identity, including sexuality
Very little or no research on the words that women have for women
COMPARISONS
Animal Metaphors
• Men: lion-hearted, stallion, stud, young buck
• Women: bitch, cougar, fox, wildcat, kitten, chick, (Playboy) bunny
•
“Their value exists in their relative scarcity, superior physical appearance,
independence, the challenge of exploiting them sexually, and the possibility that
they may steal the male’s resources without giving reciprocity…. Foxes are desired
as trophies.” (Whaley and Antonelli, 1993)
Body Parts
• Men: “dick” is a standard insult (also used by women)
• Women: “cunt” is among the worst insults
Drastic differences in lexicon indicate “double standard” maintained for
male and female social behavior.
THESIS
While slang terms for women are predominantly defined by their
sexual relation to men, the usage of bitch and hobag among women
serves as a method of resisting societal expectations via using the
language typically used by men.
DATA
Two sets of data:
• University of California, Los Angeles (1988)
• University of California, Berkeley (1992)
Students asked to collect ten slang terms they or their friends used
frequently and write down definitions and example sentences
Categorized into four types:
•
•
•
•
Women as Objects (peach)
Women as Prostitutes (hoochie)
Women as Dumb (airhead)
Women as Rude and Evil (bitch)
RESULTS
90 percent of the words for women describe women in a negative
way, compared to only 46 percent of words for men
Examples of “bad” terms: fat (thunderthighs), ugly (skank), dumb
(bimbo), too free sexually (turboslut), assertive (bitch), prudish (nun)
“Good” terms = attractive to men (betty, filet, freak)
• Positive words focus on the attractiveness of women to men as
sexual partners
On the UCLA list – no words for fat, assertive, or dumb men.
RESULTS
One interesting result: ho and bitch were used between women as
terms of affection but were never used by men in this way
Is there an element of covert prestige for “speaking like men”?
Sutton believes that usage of ho and bitch signifies solidarity (like
nigga between African Americans and queer by the LGBT community)
Part II
REACTIONS
REACTIONS
Personal anecdote: I distinctly remember a discussion in high
school about why there is no equivalent word for “male slut” with the
same negative connotation.
“Fashionable” slang terms cycle through rather quickly – since the
data were collected in 1988 and 1992, how has the slang for men and
women changed in the last twenty years?
Part III
ANALYSIS
20 YEARS LATER…
20 YEARS LATER…
“Lean cuisine” and “backpack” are not part of the standard
American English lexicon, but they are examples of slang words
where women define men on the same categories of attractiveness or
“Men as Object.”
Does this reflect a shift in societal expectations? Not sure – both
of these terms have an element of being defined by sexual
attractiveness.
Part IV
QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS
Given the clip of Jersey Shore’s Deena, do you think the “double
standard” for male and female behavior is as prevalent today? Do we
still see this in the male/female lexicon?
What hypothesis do you have for why bitch and ho in particular are
used by women for each other?