Words the world would be better off without

[whoputthecatout]

Just that really.

I'll start us off....

Feisty - used almost exclusively to describe any female that is not a doormat;
Empowerment/empowering - often misused to describe females who contort themselves round poles or strip off for blokes;
Sex positive - misused to describe females who think being up for anything with anyone is somehow in any way positive;
Gender - do I really have to explain why?

What words would posters send to room 101?

Related to women beng referred to as "girls"... can we ban men from dismissing stupid/horrible things they did as "I was just a kid" when they were late teens/twenties...

Can we add words too please?

"Testerical", and coined by another poster - "male performance cooking"

"Wears the trousers"
Manflu
Can I add non-binary? Fuck off (got an earnest lecture about non binary today, it's hard to bite my tongue)

"Mothers meeting" "mumtrepreneur"
there are more along that vein but my brain isn't cooperating

Any derogatory or even "complementary" (clever girl doing that thing we wouldn't comment on a man doing after having children) use of mum/mother

Yummy Mummy
MILF

"Upskirt" (let's get rid of those photos, and have no need for the descriptor)

"Ball breaker"

Cum, used either as a noun or a verb. Just horrible.

And a quick word on absence of words - why do we have so few words for the female genitalia other than the clinical or the ones seen as the most obscene words ever? Why can't we have nice affectionate words for vulvas, clitorises, labia, etc? Not twee, infantalising ones which vary from one family to another but just ordinary, possibly slightly earthy words that adults could use to each other (I do quite like fanny, but I gather that one's feelings towards it as a word are highly regionally variable)? Where's the female equivalent of "dick" or "cock"?

Bubbly. Always used to describe a friendly chubby woman. Never a man

I remember the previous discussion. There is no connotation of overweight in the US. "Bubbly" describes an upbeat and effervescent (like champagne) personality. It's usually used for women, but I have heard it for men as well. DH is bubbly, me not so much.

Admit I'm loving cuntless.

But vanilla sex is boring! Stop kink shaming!

May have missed the point

Anyway, what is interesting about some of these is that the word is, it of itself, not the problem. Its either the history or part of a previous context thats the problem.

I can find people and situations hysterically funny. I have been described as modestly efficient at work. The use of girls can be seen that way but then I've seen boys (night out with the boys for example) used for grown men as well so we'd need to be consistent about changing that.

I do hate ball breaker though.

Cuntless. That's got to be one of the most multi-dimensional insults ever.

It's got 'cunt' in it - so a satisfyingly A list insult. Yet it's celebrating them by implying their absence is pathetic.

It's genius.

And adding 'wonder' just adds emphasis.

Plus cuntless wonder makes zero sense when applied to a female.

Brilliant YetAnother.

The use of girls can be seen that way but then I've seen boys (night out with the boys for example) used for grown men as well so we'd need to be consistent about changing that.

I agree, but that's not the context that is so problematical. It's that a middle aged woman in an office may very likely be referred to as a girl, especially if she is in a clerical position, but a man will not be called a boy.

Inundated and solidarity.

Will go van Gogh and cut my ears off the next time I hear either of those words.

I'm glad that people like 'cuntless wonder' ... I can't lay claim to being its creator though! I heard mention of it in a talk on postmodern feminism I went to once about 20 years ago... :)

Lol and lmao.

As soon as someone utters those, I get a mental picture that is far from flattering.

I agree, but that's not the context that is so problematical. It's that a middle aged woman in an office may very likely be referred to as a girl, especially if she is in a clerical position, but a man will not be called a boy.

Indeed. It's so commonplace to refer to individual women as "girls", "the girl at work", "this girl I know" etc. If those doing so referred to a man of the same age as a "boy" they'd be questioned (but they never would). It's belittling and that it's so accepted says a lot.

The only context I can think of where adult men are routinely referred to as boys is football. Managers will quite often call their players boys, not just the very young ones.

Nagging. Otherwise known as "asking someone to do something"

Don't get me started on nagging !!! You mean asking you to do something perfectly reasonable that I do myself but you have a penis so clearly I must be nagging if I ask you to do it once !!

Bitter about my ex ?! Moi ?? Never

Infact throw "bitter" in that context in the list too !

I literally in the last 5 minutes told my husband to stop nagging at me ! We'd been out and supper, which he cooked, was getting cold.

I was referred to as 'little girl' the other day. I'm in my thirties. Gave me the rage. I'm short, but that's no excuse.

My contribution to the thread: panties. It manages to be creepily infantilising and sexualising all at once.