Wow. So many subtleties and nuances! Who knew? Speaking as a kiwi, now Australian, who was very dissatisfied not to learn many Chinese swear words while living in China for a couple of years. Closest I got was ‘piss breath’ but I was never a confident user. There’s lots of cussing variation’s ‘across the ditch’ between Oz and NZ, but probably fairly subtle to non Australians/kiwis
My Kiwi colleague and I play a game called 'What do you call it?'. It goes 'What do you call the thing that boils water?' 'Er, a kettle? Why, what do you call it?' 'A jug'. 'What do you call the plastic wrap you wrap food in?' 'Glad wrap.' 'Same!' And so on and so forth.
I think 'piss breath' is a marvellous insult! It would be interesting to know if it's ever used literally - as in when someone's breath smells like they've just drunk a vat of urine. As an over-generalisation, but I'd say that a lot of North Asian insults rely more on context and tone for meaning. For example, in South Korea, where I did fieldwork (many years ago now), the closest equivalent to 'fuck off' is 'kkeo jyeo' (its guttural in sound by nature, but that's emphasised in how people say it). It literally means 'go away', but is an extremely impolite form of it.
My wife (Australian) and I do that game too. The best episode of that was at Auckland airport. She constantly teases me about the “chicken counter” for departing passengers. I had the last laugh while walking between the domestic and international terminals a few years ago. We saw one of those baggage tractors towing several trailers loaded with crates of fluffy yellow baby chooks. I immediately said there must be a chicken counter somewhere to count them all. I don’t know about the semantics of piss breath. My main Chinese language coach refused to teach me swearing in Chinese. Yet she became fluent in English swearing, at one point using numerous swear words in every sentence (not learned from me). Most unfair.
Yes, I suppose one might, in Canada, use ostensibly gender-specific slurs across gender lines, but in my “mind’s ear” I hear them with a sardonic emphasis, as a criticism of a behaviour, as you say, so, for example, He’s such a slut, or he’s so bitchy, etc., or she’s such an a- hole.
As an infrequent swearer, and thus one with a small lexicon in that area, I am struck by the fact, garnered from watching British television series, that some words which are generally gender-specific in Canadian English seem not to be in England. — twat, c—-, even bitch. I doubt that “prick” would be used here to insult a female. Perhaps even a-hole, but then, perhaps it is that the behaviour is most likely to be male!?
Ah, a whole book could be written on this topic (and probably has been - swearing studies is now a legitimate subfield of linguistics!). In *Assholes: A Theory*, James argues that the term is intrinsically gendered insofar as it always refers to a male (and, yes, he basically states exactly your point, which is that it refers to a type of gendered behaviour most common in males). He argues that a female asshole is, by definition, called a 'bitch' instead.
Personally, I think the term has broadened over time - anyone being 'catty' (another gendered term!) can be called a bitch. I've written a lot about c*nt, and it's still gendered insofar as a male is more likely to be called one than a woman in the UK and Oz (when you use it for women, where it is reserved for truly heinous behaviour), although 'c*nty' is different, because it's about a type of behaviour, not the gender of the person employing it. It is also frequently used for inanimate objects - cars, spanners, or basically any object not working in the way it should. Notably, at least in Australia (and I'd say amongst working-class Brits), it's also not always a negative term - it can be quite affectionate in meaning. There's actually some interesting anthropological research on insults and teasing as a form of bonding behaviour that fits usage fairly well.
'Knob' is fairly gender neutral here and in Oz; 'dick' probably less so, but you can still use it for women. 'Prick' can likewise be used for both sexes, although men more commonly. I guess this speaks to the fact that many of these terms are about certain kinds of behaviours that we increasingly recognise that both men and women engage in, so their gendered dimensions are becoming dampened - at least, that's one theory!
Honestly, could write at least three more Substacks on this topic: one on gender and swearing, one on swearing and bonding, and one on why genitals feature so frequently in swearing (and, animals, of course, as Edmund Leach showed!).
Thank you for that response. My “social circle” of late is perhaps rather too circumscribed — and circumspect? — for me to experience varied behaviours, and slurs, but I think “catty” here, if used to describe male behaviour , might be limited to “gay” males.
Leach was, at the time I was in Grad School, among very few anthropologists writing on “bad language”, or even “bodily functions”, save Mary Douglas, perhaps. Still a more priggish era, I suppose, despite it being the Sixties.
Wow. So many subtleties and nuances! Who knew? Speaking as a kiwi, now Australian, who was very dissatisfied not to learn many Chinese swear words while living in China for a couple of years. Closest I got was ‘piss breath’ but I was never a confident user. There’s lots of cussing variation’s ‘across the ditch’ between Oz and NZ, but probably fairly subtle to non Australians/kiwis
My Kiwi colleague and I play a game called 'What do you call it?'. It goes 'What do you call the thing that boils water?' 'Er, a kettle? Why, what do you call it?' 'A jug'. 'What do you call the plastic wrap you wrap food in?' 'Glad wrap.' 'Same!' And so on and so forth.
I think 'piss breath' is a marvellous insult! It would be interesting to know if it's ever used literally - as in when someone's breath smells like they've just drunk a vat of urine. As an over-generalisation, but I'd say that a lot of North Asian insults rely more on context and tone for meaning. For example, in South Korea, where I did fieldwork (many years ago now), the closest equivalent to 'fuck off' is 'kkeo jyeo' (its guttural in sound by nature, but that's emphasised in how people say it). It literally means 'go away', but is an extremely impolite form of it.
My wife (Australian) and I do that game too. The best episode of that was at Auckland airport. She constantly teases me about the “chicken counter” for departing passengers. I had the last laugh while walking between the domestic and international terminals a few years ago. We saw one of those baggage tractors towing several trailers loaded with crates of fluffy yellow baby chooks. I immediately said there must be a chicken counter somewhere to count them all. I don’t know about the semantics of piss breath. My main Chinese language coach refused to teach me swearing in Chinese. Yet she became fluent in English swearing, at one point using numerous swear words in every sentence (not learned from me). Most unfair.
Yes, I suppose one might, in Canada, use ostensibly gender-specific slurs across gender lines, but in my “mind’s ear” I hear them with a sardonic emphasis, as a criticism of a behaviour, as you say, so, for example, He’s such a slut, or he’s so bitchy, etc., or she’s such an a- hole.
As an infrequent swearer, and thus one with a small lexicon in that area, I am struck by the fact, garnered from watching British television series, that some words which are generally gender-specific in Canadian English seem not to be in England. — twat, c—-, even bitch. I doubt that “prick” would be used here to insult a female. Perhaps even a-hole, but then, perhaps it is that the behaviour is most likely to be male!?
Ah, a whole book could be written on this topic (and probably has been - swearing studies is now a legitimate subfield of linguistics!). In *Assholes: A Theory*, James argues that the term is intrinsically gendered insofar as it always refers to a male (and, yes, he basically states exactly your point, which is that it refers to a type of gendered behaviour most common in males). He argues that a female asshole is, by definition, called a 'bitch' instead.
Personally, I think the term has broadened over time - anyone being 'catty' (another gendered term!) can be called a bitch. I've written a lot about c*nt, and it's still gendered insofar as a male is more likely to be called one than a woman in the UK and Oz (when you use it for women, where it is reserved for truly heinous behaviour), although 'c*nty' is different, because it's about a type of behaviour, not the gender of the person employing it. It is also frequently used for inanimate objects - cars, spanners, or basically any object not working in the way it should. Notably, at least in Australia (and I'd say amongst working-class Brits), it's also not always a negative term - it can be quite affectionate in meaning. There's actually some interesting anthropological research on insults and teasing as a form of bonding behaviour that fits usage fairly well.
'Knob' is fairly gender neutral here and in Oz; 'dick' probably less so, but you can still use it for women. 'Prick' can likewise be used for both sexes, although men more commonly. I guess this speaks to the fact that many of these terms are about certain kinds of behaviours that we increasingly recognise that both men and women engage in, so their gendered dimensions are becoming dampened - at least, that's one theory!
Honestly, could write at least three more Substacks on this topic: one on gender and swearing, one on swearing and bonding, and one on why genitals feature so frequently in swearing (and, animals, of course, as Edmund Leach showed!).
Thank you for that response. My “social circle” of late is perhaps rather too circumscribed — and circumspect? — for me to experience varied behaviours, and slurs, but I think “catty” here, if used to describe male behaviour , might be limited to “gay” males.
Leach was, at the time I was in Grad School, among very few anthropologists writing on “bad language”, or even “bodily functions”, save Mary Douglas, perhaps. Still a more priggish era, I suppose, despite it being the Sixties.