"YOU'VE GOT SPUNK!"

In yesterday's Sue's News article BLOWSY, my brother mentioned that it was interesting about the number of disparaging words used ONLY for women.  He said, "You know you never hear men described as BOSSY."  I said, "Sheryl Sandberg and Beyonce have a campaign to eliminate bossy as an adjective for girls."  He asked, "Then what would we use to call you?"  After a minute, he said, "BALABUSTA is perfect, but not too many people know Yiddish!"  I said, "And Yiddish is also replete with disparaging words just for women!"

He asked, "Remember when Lou Grant said to Mary Richards, 'You've got spunk!' and she was smiling at the perceived compliment and then he said he hated spunk?, you never hear spunk in reference to women."  Enjoy the hilarious clip:

I told him, "When Mother was a girl, one of her nicknames was Spunky."

He said, "You're gonna make a list, aren't you?'

He knows me too well.

I will NOT mention the common "B" and "C" derogatory words used about women, but look at the list from The Gloss:.15 words only used to describe women:

PERKY
DITZY
FIERY
BITCHY
SULTRY
ADORABLE
HORMONAL
MOUSY
BUBBLY
COMPLICATED
CURVY
FEISTY
RAVISHING
SOFT-SPOKEN
VOLUPTUOUS

Not ALL of the words are disparaging, but one never hears them used for men!

I conducted a quick survey among three friends who are women and these were quickly added:

FRIGID
FRUMPY
EMOTIONAL
ABRASIVE
SHRILL
PUSHY
HIGH-MAINTENANCE
SASSY
TEASE
AIRHEAD
AMBITIOUS
HEADSTRONG

When I shared the lists with my brother, he said, "Oh, how could you forget SENSITIVE, sistah?"

Touche!

He is ALWAYS very incisive!