Wordslut

A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

By: Amanda Montell

Narrated by: Amanda Montell

“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 Cassidy

A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us.

The word bitch conjures many images for many people, 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 gender at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word meaning genitalia. A perfectly innocuous word devolving into a female insult is the case for tons more terms, including hussy—which simply meant housewife—or slut, which meant an untidy person and was also used to describe men. These words are just a few among history’s many English slurs hurled at women.

Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language—from insults and cursing, gossip, and catcalling to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women and other marginalized genders from power. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women talk with vocal fry or use the word like as a filler? Or why certain gender-neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or where stereotypes of how women and men speak come from in the first place?

Montell effortlessly moves between history, science, and popular culture to explore these questions and more—and how we can use the answers to effect real social change. Her irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound, demonstrated in chapters such as:

• Slutty Skanks and Nasty Dykes: A Comprehensive List of Gendered Insults
• How to Embarrass the Shit Out of People Who Try to Correct Your Grammar
• Fuck it: An Ode to Cursing While Female
• Cyclops, Panty Puppet, Bald Headed Bastard and 100+ Other Things to Call Your Genitalia

Wordslut gets to the heart of our language, marvels at its elasticity, and sheds much-needed light into the biases that shadow women in our culture and our consciousness.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

A good book

An Interesting take on words - a perspective and facts I've never heard before and that I appreciated. I laughed out loud a handful of times. The author writes and reads in a very unpretentious way that makes the subject matter approachable and pleasant.

F’ing awesome

As an unfulfilled linguist who went for a teaching credential instead of a linguistics degree, I found this book to be completely engaging and enlightening. For feminists, language nerds and the cultural curious, this book is a winner.

Not bad

Irreverant. Entertaining. Humorously crude. Social justice issues. A book meant to challenge the reader and their attitudes on how they or others speak, with occasional sprinkles of interesting etymology.

The etymology of words

I loved the word origins and links with one another.
The book was fascinating.
I also liked the narrator’s jaunty voice.

A fun critique

Well worth your time, though a bit uneven. The various chapters differ noticeably in scope, from a heavy linguistic focus to a heavy feminist focus. I suspect most will necessarily be drawn to some chapters more than others.