Archive · 28 Aug 2026
How Language Has Long Policed Women’s Bodies and Voices
Language is not always fair to women.
Many words for women have changed in ways that judge their behavior, bodies, or relationships with men.
Some words make female sexuality sound dirty while treating male desire as normal.
Medical terms have also described women’s bodies using ideas of shame or irrationality.
Women who speak angrily or swear are often judged more harshly than men.
The article says swearing can help people express pain, anger, humor, and closeness.
Experiments have found that repeating a swear word can sometimes increase pain tolerance.
The writer argues that women should be able to speak openly without being controlled by unfair language rules.
Jenni Nuttall’s book traces more than 1,000 years of English vocabulary about women’s bodies and experiences.
Words such as “woman,” “girl,” “mistress” and “spinster” have developed meanings tied to women’s relationships or social status.
Terms including “slut,” “whore” and “harlet” increasingly stigmatized female sexuality while leaving male desire more accepted.
Medical words such as “pudendum” and “hysteria” associated women’s bodies with shame or irrationality.
Women who express anger or use profanity face extra respectability demands, despite swearing’s potential emotional and physiological functions.
- Who
- Women, language users, and Jenni Nuttall, whose book examines the history of words describing women.
- What
- An analysis of how English has historically judged women’s bodies, sexuality, behavior, and speech.
- When
- Across more than 1,000 years, with the effects continuing today.
- Where
- In the English language, with the article also referring to cultural reactions in India.
- Why
- Because vocabulary and speech rules have often imposed social expectations on women and restricted their ability to express themselves.
- Book discussed
- Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words by Jenni Nuttall
- Historical scope
- More than 1,000 years of English vocabulary
- Word origins
- “Woman” comes from Old English “wifman,” meaning a female human
- Sexual language
- Words such as “slut,” “whore” and “harlet” became increasingly associated with stigmatizing women’s sexuality
- Medical terminology
- “Pudendum” derives from a Latin root meaning shame, while “hysteria” comes from a Greek word for womb
- Speech expectations
- Assertive or cussing women are often judged as bossy, shrews, or disrespectful
- Swearing’s functions
- Profanity can express pain, anger, intimacy, humor, and solidarity, and may increase pain tolerance