Name calling, misogyny, equality

[eavesdropping]

Something has got me thinking about this.

If a man uses misogynist language to call a woman names - eg. bitch, slag, cunt - is that inherently worse than a woman calling a man names, eg. arsehole, wanker, whatever?

I'm thinking that it's worse, based on us living in an unequal world - men wield more power when they use those terms than women do with the equivalent.

Do others agree, or think they're as bad as each other?

They ought to be as bad as each other. But they're not, are they? On the scale of offensiveness, twat's pretty high up there and cunt's right at the top, but cock's fairly mild and dick's barely even an expletive. Could be something to do with a penis being considered a good thing to have, but possession of a vagina is a terrible, terrible thing, because male's the default position and female is seen as lesser.

I suspect we'll know we're a lot further along the path to true gender equality when cock and cunt are considered equally offensive (or inoffensive) no matter who it's applied or by whom.

The actual words aside though - is it worse when a man name calls a woman names, down to the fact that we don't have equality?

It is interesting that cunt is widely regarded as the most obscene word, whether you're using it aggressively or appreciatively eg 'you're a cunt' and 'my cunt is the centre of the universe, I love it' would be regarded as equally offensive and unprintable in most mass media.

Whereas 'cock', at least in some circles, is regarded as an affectonate term of address - 'Wotcha, cock!' and 'prick' might be an insult but it's on the same semantic level as 'bloody' or 'bugger.'

name calling is name calling be it a man or a woman doing it - they are both displaying the same behaviour so it is equal. the the woman was not swearing and said something like your naughty and the man said your a cunt then i would say that the man was worse due to the agressiveness of his words but if they both use cunt in their name calling then they are as bad as each other.

Agree with bingodiva. Aggressive words are aggressive words, not matter who utters them.

The context in which you say those words have a lot to answer for, more than the words in itself.