Wordslut A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

Amanda Montell

eBook - 2019

"As funny as it is informative, this book will have you laughing out loud while you contemplate the revolutionary power of words." —Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met CassidyA brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us.The word bitch conjures many images, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean "a female canine," bitch didn't refer to women at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word for "genitalia." A perfectly innocuous word devolving into an insult directed at females is the case for tons more terms, including hussy, which simply meant "housewife"; and s...lut, which meant "an untidy person" and was also used to describe men. These are just a few of history's many English slurs hurled at women.Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs... more