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The word was used as early as the 1300s (in the form of an adjective, sluttish, referring to a man's untidy appearance) by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. [6] I’m interested in how word-usages evolve, such as with “stupid.” When the characters of Austen (and other 18th- and 19th- century writers) use it, they mean “dull” and not the (U.S. American) connotation “stupid” has today. And by “dull,” I don’t mean the usual way we think of that word, as in “boring.” The same kind of evolution (and worse) happened to words like “slut.”
How do gendered languages affect personal identification growing up? This is fascinating to read and think about. Some words literally do not exist in some languages and can't be made up using the existing language. I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.” — Jill Soloway Amanda Montell is an LA-based writer and the features editor at WhoWhatWear. She has a degree in linguistics and creative writing from New York University, and her work has appeared widely including Marie Claire, Cosmpolitan, The Rumpus, … Devon, Natasha (15 October 2014). "Is there a male equivalent to calling a woman a 'slut'?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 2 December 2016. Shillinglaw had been discussing the “slut” issue with scholars and archivists “for about five years”, with no inkling of the Swedish angle.
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In the mid-17 th century, the diarist Samuel Pepys wrote, “Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily.”
It's very internet white feminism. If you can tolerate "folks" as a synonym for people and "dudes" or "bros" for men all the way through the text, or sentences like "You may or may not have heard of a little thing called the patriarchy", you're less irritable than me. Admittedly, this is highly likely. More materially there's no bibliography, no sources, don't get me started on the tiresome claims about languages with grammatical gender, and it's full of unproven assertions (eg a random sentence tells us that prehistoric humans were happily polygamous and female sexuality was then considered "totally normal and great". That's based on what? The OED’s first definition for slut is “a woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits or appearance; a foul slattern.” The earliest citation for such usage is 1402, predating citations for either the F word or the C word. But again, slut then had no sexual connotation, so using it in print carried no onus. Nathanson, Rebecca (2 October 2011). "SlutWalk Rally Against Sexual Violence Draws Huge Crowd of Feminists". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Before reading the book, I listened to an interview with Montell. She’s personable and engaging, and the book is written in much the same way as she talks. It was fun to hear that her mom is from New Orleans, so she uses and loves the word “y’all,” as opposed to a word like “guys,” for a mixed-gender group. “Folks” also works for her.
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For spending a good amount of time on the un/gendering of language and even dedicating a full chapter to queer linguistics, the author reduces people to men and women only far too many times to be excusable. And, sorry for the token "queer friend named Molly" (inexplicably one of the only informal sources named?) used as a sole source of knowledge about the lesbian experience. A couple of chapters in this book BLEW my mind. They put into words how I felt in many conversations, especially in the workplace, and spoke about how language creates or enforces power structures. I also loved how Montell spoke about how women tend to converse horizontally, layering thoughts in a collaborative manner, while men tend to converse vertically, in a series of monologues which aim to establish a power dynamic. Chapter 3 is GREAT. The word bitch conjures many images, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean “a female canine,” bitch didn’t refer to women at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word for “genitalia.” A perfectly innocuous word devolving into an insult directed at females is the case for tons more terms, including hussy, which simply meant “housewife”; and slut, which meant “an untidy person” and was also used to describe men. These are just a few of history’s many English slurs hurled at women.
This week we are looking at two words which may be confused by learners of English: scarce and scarcely. Improve your English with Collins. According to OED "Of doubtful origin," but probably cognate with dialectal German Schlutt"slovenly woman," dialectal Swedish slata"idle woman, slut," and Dutch slodde"slut," slodder"a careless man," though the exact relationship of all these is obscure. A brash, enlightening and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us. Read:Elizabeth Entenman, ‘Uptalk, vocal fry, and using the word "like" are signs you're linguistically savvy—this book proves why’, Hello Giggles, May 29 2019. Rose, Amber. "The Amber Rose Slutwalk". About the Walk. Amber Rose. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016 . Retrieved 1 December 2016.
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A hundred years later, when Samuel Johnson first published his dictionary, he defined a slut as “a dirty woman” and also noted that it was a word “of slight contempt to a woman.” The examples he cites all use “dirty” in its most obvious, non-sexual sense. There are many diverse influences on the way that English is used across the world today. We look at some of the ways in which the language is changing. Read our series of blogs to find out more. The double standard associated with slut-labeling is part of the modern day rape culture. Rape culture is "the casual debasement [of women] ... that has become such a part of our lives that it is often invisible." [26] Though people in society are vocally anti-rape, there is an insinuation that certain types of rape are acceptable or that women are voluntarily taking actions that justify sexual advances. "For example, women continue to be blamed if they are raped because of how they are dressed, the assumption that women purportedly lie about being raped remains popular, and certain women, such as married women or women of colour, are still considered 'unrapeable'”. [27] The word slut and the double standard it contains reflects the gender norms and gender biases [26] that are prevalent in a culture in which rape is constantly justified. People from all sects of society contribute to this justification. [28] It's generally pretty well known that if you identify a sound change in progress, then young people will be leading old people, and women tend to be maybe half a generation ahead of males," Liberman says.
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