Gender-specific douchery
In this YouTube clip, Jonathan Coulton gives some backstory on the Portal videogame
COULTON
This song is sung by one of the characters in the game. She’s an artificial intelligence, and she’s kind of an asshole.
That got a laugh, and for good reason: we so rarely refer to women as assholes.
And I don’t really know why. There are many gender-specific terms for hateful men and women, so it’s surprising that one which should be equally-applicable is almost always used for men only.
And yes, I got the sheet music to “Still Alive.”
Articles
April 7th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Hey John,
Random inquiry…
In a 2007 article, you made mention of Final Draft. You said that, whenever you complained about the product, they would invite you to help in developing the next edition.
Did you have a hand in Final Draft 8? I hear it’s coming out soon, and reportedly it’s MUCH better.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Cunt isn’t that much different from asshole, I think. I always refer to other females as assholes or cunts, but I especially like to refer to males as “cunts.” but yeah, I’ve never thought of “asshole” as gender specific.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Using asshole for men is strange – but we also use douche bag almost exclusively for men – WHY? Everyone has an asshole, but how many men have ever seen – let alone used – a douche?
April 7th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Ya my gay character tries to use gender-specific insults but he keeps coming off as a total skank.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
@Andrew:
Nope, don’t know anything about FD8. I’d love for it to be great.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:27 am
http://www.finaldraft.com/purchase/free-upgrade/claim-form.php
Didn’t even know it was coming out, I can’t wait. Hopefully this time we’ll be able to actually USE Collabowriter?
What would be one feature you would most like to see in a new Final Draft, John?
April 7th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I use “asshole” for both men and women and never understood why most people don’t use it as an equal opportunity insult.
@Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist!
Are you British? Scottish? It seems the insult “cunt” is used far more for men in the UK and is generally a less toxic insult than it is in the States. I was once chastised by a female reader for writing misogynistic dialogue when I had a character use the word “cunt.” This was odd because the character was calling another dude a cunt, and the character using the word was Scottish. That character’s dialogue was based partially on a Scottish guy who’s a former soccer teammate; that guy called everyone cunts, from opponents, to the referee, to his own teammates. But he never called a woman a cunt. Only two other guys on the team used the word regularly. One was Welsh, the other English.
Geez, I can’t believe how much I used that word in the previous paragraph.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I think bitch has too much female connotation, and if you’re describing a powerful and terrible female character as a bitch, you (wrongly, and sadly) lose some of the strength of the insult. She becomes just another catty girl.
Sadly, if we make GLaDOS a man, I can’t think of another insult that would get the same reaction. Sure, douche is funny, and dropping the c-bomb always gets A reaction. But, asshole communicates her so well, and I’d hate to think that’s because of my own gender stereotypes.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
On a side note, Coulton puts on a great show and not only writes clever songs, but knows how to interact with a socially-awkward crowd.
Yeah, crowds can be socially-awkward.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I immediately jumped online to find the guitar tab so I could play it as well.
(Pushes nerd glasses up bridge of nose.)
April 8th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Wanker is another thing that shouldn’t be gender specific but for some reason it’s rarely aimed at women (I live in Ireland – I’m not sure how popular wanker is as a put-down in the States. Cretin* and Sap are two good ones that are neither gender specific (I think) and also have nothing to do with genitalia and the things we do with them.
*I’ve just looked cretin up and it’s severely stunted physical and mental growth due to untreated congenital deficiency of thyroid hormones – damn, now I feel bad.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Josh,
I’m Scottish and we love the word cunt for the same reason as we love whisky and sectarianism – it proves we’re harder than everyone else.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I once had a girlfriend once who’d jump down my throat if I called someone a “pussy”, she said it was an insult to women to use that word as a pejorative. Yet, she called every other person she didn’t like a “dick”. Whenever I tried to point out to her that it’s pretty much the same thing (either it’s literal and sexist and offensive or it’s figurative and not sexist or offensive), she’d just refuse to accept it, arguing that it’s ok to be sexist towards men, but not towards women. I suggested “asshole” as the all purpose replacement, but she wouldn’t buy it.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
John,
Just watched Welcome to the Dollhouse for the first time, and this reminded me of the ridiculousness of homophobic slurs as shown in that film, where they’re used against both heterosexual males, heterosexual females, and females who are years away from achieving sexuality.
Perhaps the different pejoratives for men and women are an extension of the differences in how women and men act aggressively. It could go beyond just the simple gender and into not only body language and word choice, but also, say, the display of vanity and mockery in a male vs. bitterness in a female (or whatever the actual specifics are). This could just be rational word choice, as when the terms are used cross-gender, they do seem to imply something extra about the person.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Bitch (female): see asshole Bitch (male): see pussy