You’re such a….
Pussy.
What associations come to your mind when hearing this word? In the The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, pussy is defined in various ways. From the female genitalia to a woman as a sexual object to dirty to weak.
Though some of these terms originated as early as 1880 their meanings in society remain have largely remained consistent. Though a quick search through UrbanDictionary shows the development of the word into various offshoots from slang, the overarching meanings are that of femininity and lack of power, why? After reading Joel Leon’s article I began to think — what does this word mean to me? What associations come to mind when I hear it? This exercise of metacognition made me realize the true impact culture has on language and our perceptions. Immediately I recognized the fact that throughout my life there have been two distinct, oft used meanings of the word. The first was the female genitalia, and next was weak. Some may say, it’s just a word dude don’t take it so seriously. But that’s exactly why we should be taking it seriously. Words and language can be used in a positive or negative way.
A video series done by WatchCut titled One Word has people respond with associations to words, one episode was done using the word “pussy” with both men and women.
After viewing the videos I began to see similarities; derogatory, weak, vulgar, crude, a hate word. I recalled back to where these associations in my own mind began to form, the word was always correlated to something unmanly, something feeble. It reminded of the countless times someone backed down, got beat up, was weak, or was a reference to sexual escapades turning the woman into her body part — in essence all these affiliations led to one concept that of domination. That’s the key word here, dominated. As Leon puts it,
“Language is power. Words are power. The choices we make with those words, with this language, can dictate how we approach life and the people in our lives and how they are affected by them. Growing up in a neighborhood where a woman’s vagina wasn’t really classified as hers; it was something to be controlled, mastered…dominated, shapes how you think and interact with said population.”
I’m positive that most can relate to the discourse of using the euphemisms for vagina as an object, using it to establish the patriarchal notion of superiority and inferiority. And this is primarily what Leon gets at, the fact that in society today it’s become something people stopped thinking about, “I don’t mean it that way!”. And therein the problem lies, “how will my words impact those around me?” is a question seldom asked. Words are alive, in the sense that their meanings and usage is constantly changing over time, for this reason it’s important to be conscious of the impacts they might have, as well as how as a society we can collectively change their usage and meaning. Consciousness in language is the main tool in removing perpetuated norms. Words display a great deal about what people really think. Using such a word related to femininity to denote being weak, a coward, and submissive is a problem. It shows that the one using the word believes that women are somehow less than men. The usage of the word pussy in a derogatory, offensive sense, needs to be curbed, and this can start with us — by changing the context in which we use the word distancing it from negative meaning.
