Re: utter exasperation

Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:33:17 +0000


Damien Broderick:
>Yep, that's killed me, invalidated anything I said - what a girl, a pussy,
>a twat, a bitch, a cunt, old, past it, a wrinkly.

And thank *you* for illustrating an interesting linguistic
phenomenon, the amelioration of female terms into the perjorative, as
stated by Jane Mills: ...'the term for the female is likely to acquire
negative...connotations and, once it is attached to the female, is
unlikely to be transferred to a male unless to express contempt. Some
linguists have concluded that this constitutes a definitive semantic
rule.'

IOW, try and find a male perjorative term that would fit into the above
list, I doubt you will succeed.

Sin,

Kathryn Aegis