Nasty Woman Language

As I was reading the chapter “Angry Black Woman” in You Can’t Touch my Hair I was interested in the correlation between insults and identities. How certain sayings and phrases impact people of color differently based on societal bias’ and discriminatory language. As I was reading the chapter I started to make connections to insults I saw being correlated to other identities. Such as gender identity. I was intrigued at the idea that society has built a dictionary of insulting verbiage tailored to certain groups within the population.

I was able to find an article by Chi Luu called “The Language of Nasty Women” (https://daily.jstor.org/the-language-of-nasty-women-and-other-gendered-insults/). This article really pairs nicely with Phoebe's chapter on identity based insults. The article first drags Trump (win!) for his use of insults and name calling. The reason for bringing up some of his lovely rhetoric is because it has empowered women. The article is based off of the Donald Trump quote “Such a Nasty Women”. Women have taken this for their own, celebrating the strengths of the nasty woman. ‘Angry black woman’ and ‘nasty woman’ are both insults derived by behaviors that are usually just temporary. Every person in the world changes moods, and can react poorly to a certain situation. For some reason women are put through rigorous judgement about their emotional stability. 

Many times in my life I have been asked “are you pmsing” just because I was irritated, or upset. For some reason it is only justifiable for me to be upset when I have a tampon shoved up my uterus, binge watching friends and doing a lot of emotional eating. It has been ingrained in me that women should not get angry, upset, irritated. It is ‘unattractive’, ‘unprofessional’, ‘ not ladylike’. 

Side rant: what the fuck is ladylike? How can you assign certain actions to an entire gender identity. Ladylike is such a demeaning term that shoves women in a box that they cannot escape because societal norms have tied it with strings, and if you open in you are ripping through layers of judgement to get out. An exhausting process in all. We are kept within our box with insults and demeaning language.

One thing the article and Phoebe both touch on are the ideas that insults are derived from gender bias’ , a quote I loved in the article was “ so the language that men and women use, or have used against them, is often subtly biased along gender lines, even if we don’t overtly notice it”. It brought up an interesting point, sometimes we are blind to how insults are created as a way for us to conform to certain standards people hold based on our identities.

I think that Phoebe enlightened me by showing me how her identity as a black woman is affected by language, as a woman I understand partially the discrimination she goes through. The language that is used to demean and push me down. I have been told that I am too controlling, where in reality I just want to be given the same opportunity and respect as everyone else.

There is a list of words and phrases that I have been told through my life that have impacted my behavior, wants and actions. It is sad to think I have been manipulated by others' negative bias’. Especially with young girls being so aware of societal pressures, it is a goal that someday this gender based hate will go away. So that people can feel free to be who they are and feel what they feel. Without fear of attack or push back from the people around them.