All Comments on 'Suck It!: Sex-Negative Language'

The Readers might consider that calling your girlfriend, wife, Mistress, Lover, or Sub; a Whore, Slut, or Cunt are not accepted (outside of gangsta rap); as positive terms of endearment. Why try to run down or degrade the lady you are with and if she is not a lady why are you with her and would you want to be caught with her.

Consider a test of if you would call you mother, sister or bosses' wife these names and if they would not be offended she might wind up having a longer term relationship with you.

"Craps is a card game".......? Since when? I thought it was a dice game!!!!

To the best of my knowledge, "boob" meant "moron", or before that, a naive person, WAY before it refered to anything on the human body. There are also waterfowl known as blue-footed and red-footed boobys. Also, the whole thing with the anus is not meant to take something seen as enjoyable and make it bad, it was meant to take something seen as bad and use it in language. It has been regarded as a terrible thing to do for a LONG time, and it was especially so during Puritan/Victorian times where homosexuality (which anal sex was synonomous with) was the ultimate bad thing to do. Being called homosexual by any means was negative because most people found it to BE negative, which is quite different from being "fucked" which everyone but hardcore church nannies found to be enjoyable and normal.

Not really disagreeing with you, I'm just offering some more info.

Excellent article! Just a few points:

"Boob" in either the "breast" or the "fool" meaning is short for "booby", but these two words "booby" aren't originally connected. The second is probably borrowed from the Spanish word "bobo", whereas the first has always been part of English. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was spelled "bubby" and was in good usage.

The waterbirds were called "boobies" because they lived mostly at sea and nested on uninhabited islands, and so had no fear of human beings. Consequently, you could pick one up and wring its neck, and lots of hungry sailors did.

How could language paint sex as something nobody would want to do? Do you really think language would stop sex? The facts are that because sex is generally something private and intimate, theres bound to be mores making it shameful to be wanton and public with regards to sexual behavior- and thus always a reason why insults will involve sexual content. But that's not a bad thing- it will never stop people from following their instincts, and plus it makes it hot to talk dirty.

I feel the pain. My first stories written were intended for a female reader, thus I endeavored to use flattering and dare I say more romantic words? I aimed to titilate and celebrate through words that avoided harshness. My wife then told me that I needed to be more direct, call it a pussy, say they fuck! I learned that words have moods and in context it is right to call a heroine a whore or the penis a cock or a women's sex her pussy. Rather than negative it is emotional it seems or visceral. Where once I shied from the harder words, I now seek to find there place because it seems my feminine reader rather likes to read about a hard fucking by the bastard to his whore as much as soft loving between hero and the flower.

absolutely true! Nuff said.