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Wordslut [图书] Eggplant.place 豆瓣
8.6 (16 个评分) 作者: Amanda Montell HarperCollins 2019 - 5
A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us, written with humor and playfulness that challenges words and phrases and how we use them.
“I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.”—Jill Soloway
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. Montell’s 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
Montell effortlessly moves between history and popular culture to explore these questions and more. 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.

读过 Wordslut 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
via徐慢懒。极度感兴趣的脏话性别语言研究,稳稳呆在舒适区:性别语言是我本科,语法性别是我硕士,以至于少了很多理论冲击。
事实上理论也是本书最弱的部分,全靠重复性引用Coates, Cameron和Zimman(各自30次左右),骂Jespersen和批判性引用Lakoff,几乎没有自己的贡献,第三章各种hedging和委婉语和我本科毕业论文的文献摘要差不多。
但Amanda Montell不愧是在商业公司写过东西的,流畅简洁有网感。强烈建议有声书,作者本人朗读,声音清脆活跃,比单纯看书好看得多。最喜欢的是各个章节实用建议,比如用suck my clit骂人。
缺点是美式英语中心和白人女权。举的例子里最常见的是作者会说的英语法语意语,原住民语言一看就是从不知道哪篇古早文献挖的,轻轻touch on AAVE但没有展开黑人群体。单独开的一章写LGBTQ+质量尚可,学到了女同为什么没有像男同一样有一套话语:还是因为男性语言是unmarked default,所以男同从直男转移到非直男语言引起强烈注视;与此同时女同无论选择表现女性气质(女同的性别表达往往先于性取向表达而男同相反)还是不表现,从非直男语言转移到默认常规的直男语言都激不起水花。当然还有随处可见的无empirical study支撑结论和over-generalization(最恼人的是没有reference list),但畅销科普书就不要啥自行车了,传播度和影响力最重要,绝对是普适且实用的性别语言导论。

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