angry with her. Women fear these epithets because women fear the
anger of men. That anger is the substance of both antifeminism
and misogyny. The epithet is a weapon, whether hurled or delivered in a sulky or measured tone. The epithet is inevitably an act of hostility used in a spirit of vengeance. Calling a woman a name
temporarily brands her; it molds social perceptions of her in a way
that upholds her social inferiority; it frequently comes before the
fist or before the fuck, and so women learn to associate it with uses
of themselves that they abhor, hostile uses of themselves; and it
frequently comes as he hits, as he fucks. The epithet degrades a
woman by degrading her sex, sexuality, and personal integrity; it
expresses a serious, not a frivolous, hatred—the hatred of women,
a serious hatred with serious consequences to those against whom
it is directed. Epithets as sex-based insults are like machine-gun
rounds, fired off, bringing down whatever gets hit—anything
female around. The hints of these sex-based insults, shadowed references to them, evocations of them, are used with persistence and skill in the public devaluing of women—in hating women and in
the politics of contempt for women, in common discourse and in
cultural discourse. Every time this use of a lexicon of hatred passes
unremarked, every time the hate is expressed and there is no visible rebellion, no discernible resistance, some part of the woman to whom it happens dies and some part of any woman who watches
dies too. Each time the use of such an epithet or its evocation
passes without retaliation, something in women dies. Each time
slut, dyke, prude, is used to keep women intimidated and each
time its use is not repudiated (the repudiation cannot rest on
whether or not the accusation is in any sense accurate, only in its
use), antifeminism has stepped on another female life and crushed
some part of it; woman hating has humiliated and hurt another
woman or a woman again. Each time an honorable word— like lesbian— is used as a weapon of insult, or some honorable act— like a woman having sex because she wants to with a lover or lovers of
her choice— is used as a weapon of insult, or some honorable
choice— like being celibate— is used as a weapon of insult, the
women who are and who do and who choose are irrevocably hurt
and diminished. The answer is not as simple as losing one’s fear of
the words themselves (whether they apply or not), because any
woman would be a fool not to be afraid of what is behind the
words. Behind the words is the man who uses them and the power
of his whole class over the woman against whom they are used.
Each time contempt is expressed for the dyke, the prude, the slut,
hatred is being expressed toward all women. Whether the insults
are accepted in society, tolerated, encouraged, the main stuff of
humor, or m erely passively acquiesced in, the devaluing of women
is perpetuated, the intimidation of women is furthered. Each time
the insults are paraded or whispered— used against a woman as
insult— the insults gain in potency from use, acceptance, and repetition; and any woman, however much she is or is not what the insult conveys, is more liable to manipulation, distortion, extortion, slander, and harassment; and antifeminism and woman hating are that much more entrenched. Woman hating is the passion; antifeminism is its ideological defense; in the sex-based insult passion and ideology are united in an act of denigration and intimidation.
The tolerance for sex-based insult and its effectiveness in discrediting women are measures of the virulence of antifeminism and woman hating: how pervasive they are, how persuasive they are,
