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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?