"Battleaxe" and "Shrill"

[enimmead]

Listening to Jeremy Vine show and caught the discussion about Tory MP Anne-Marie Morris at Prime Minister's Questions

See the clip here (at 11m 40s)

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01kv42n/Prime_Ministers_Questions_11_07_2012/

She is getting very excited and is also finding it hard to speak over the racket.

She was described as "shrill" and " a battleaxe" by Jeremy Vine. It got me thinking that these are negative words that only apply to females. Are there equivalent for men who get excited and passionate?

Probably not. Just more words in the vocabulary to put down women who dare to speak out and who get passionate. :(

I don't remember Churchill being described as a battleaxe.

Yes, in my experience, they are primarily gender specific terms used in a negative way against women who are (in the case of shrill) outspoken and (in the case of battleaxe) formidable leaders. The assumption being that women should be neither of these things!

Having said that, the term "shrill" is also sometimes used to describe certain types of birdsong. :)

I watched the video and just thought she was trying to shout over the noise.

I didn't listen to the Jeremy Vine show because when he introduced the subject for later he said "and it raises issues about the question of women in parliament". So I thought "oh no it's gonna be one of those things where one woman does something and it's taken as an indictment of ALL women" which is just a big fat yawn fest.

See, those men are privileged. I can't believe we're ruled by an old white boys club.

Well I listened to JV and he wasn't as bad as I thought. Anne Widdecombe's off my Christmas list though ...

Anne Widdecombe telling the female blogger to "Calm down, dear" :(

I thought the whole of PMQ was a disgrace. Shouting, yelling etc.

But yes - "battleaxe" is just another female put down for assertive women.

That bloody Ann Widdecombe is a disgrace to our sex. In the end JV and the male caller actually came across better than AW and one of the female callers. Well, until he shrieked "DEVON!" at the end of the broadcast.

I'm so glad I never voted for her on Strictly. Shes one of those irritating women that thinks just because she's made it any other woman can also. Or that just cos she doesn't mind being called a battle axe no one else should.

When she was telling Kate off for interrupting, Kate should have heckled her "ya ya ya" so she couldn't get her point across seeing as that was the behaviour AW was basically condoning.

Kate was right about the childish way in which question time is conducted. It's like a frat party and yet another way of how women have to bend to norms set by a privileged male elite. Don't care if it's once a week. It is still unprofessional.

Both genders have gender-specific derogatory terms, "(school)boy", for example. As for Anne-Marie Morris, ranting so hard you start to change colour will usually result in the p* being taken out of you.

Not to mention overcoming injury so that you can start frantically flapping your arm like a demented chicken.

What did you think of AW's response to Kate Smurfwate Helxi?