The curse of linguistic double standards

I’m going to let you in on a shocking secret: sometimes women swear. Here’s another revelation: there is generally nothing newsworthy about a woman swearing. I am eager to emphasize this because you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise: “Prominent woman says curse word” is a highly popular, highly sexist, news genre. Just look at the recent headlines about the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On Monday night, Ocasio-Cortez appeared on The Late Show. Stephen Colbert, the host, asked the politician about the pushback she was getting from some other Democrats: “On a scale from zero to some, how many fucks do you give?” Ocasio-Cortez replied “I think it’s zero.” This led to a flurry of headlines stating AOC gives “zero f---s about pushback”, which deceptively made it look like the congresswoman had been the one to swear.

The misleading coverage didn’t pass Ocasio-Cortez by. On Tuesday she tweeted the Hill’s article about her language, stating: “I actually didn’t say this, so while I know “brown women cursing” drives clicks, maybe you accurately quote the whole exchange.” She noted that other outlets had run with the false quote, and pointed out that the headlines reinforced “lazy tropes about women leaders in media” such as “passionate, but angry” and “smart, but crazy”.

Ocasio-Cortez is right. When a prominent man swears, it is often taken as a sign of authority and manliness, or excused as “locker room” talk. However, there are still ridiculous double standards when it comes to women cursing; utter an expletive and you will be immediately discredited and painted as angry and uncouth. Research bears this out: a 2001 study by Robert O’Neil of Louisiana State University found that people found swearing more offensive when the speaker was a woman rather than a man.

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The recent treatment of the congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is another example of the gender expletive divide. A video of Tlaib saying “we’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!”, in reference to Trump, went viral and prompted lots of finger-wagging from both sides of the political divide. Representative Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, told CNN, for example: “I don’t like really like that kind of language.” I don’t know if Nadler has had a look at what sort of language the president of the United States uses, but it might make him faint.

The amount of coverage Tlaib’s curse word generated also says a lot about where America’s priorities are. As Media Matters notes, Tlaib’s remarks got five times more coverage than the congressman Steve King’s comments about white supremacy. (To jog your memory, King asked when the term “white supremacist” had “become offensive”.) Fox News, for example, spent 52 minutes covering Tlaib’s cursing and 42 seconds on King’s comments about white supremacy, according to Media Matter’s calculations.

From Samantha Bee causing a minor meltdown in America when she used the word “cunt” last year to outrage about Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s use of the F-word in a 2015 speech, there are countless examples that show society still considers it unladylike when a woman swears. Which, to use mild language, is complete nonsense. I’m not advocating we all curse, all the time, but a well-placed expletive can be very powerful. In any case, just take a look at what is going on in the world right now. If swear words offend you more than things like Trump’s transgender military ban, America locking immigrant children in cages, and federal workers being forced to work for free then, sorry, your priorities are completely fucked.

New, less sexist, guidelines around birth control

Britain’s NHS has released new guidelines clarifying that women can take the contraceptive pill every day, rather than taking a seven-day break every 21 days. Quartz has a good piece explaining that the seven-day break, during which withdrawal bleeding takes place, was never underpinned by science but shaped by an American doctor’s beliefs that imitating a natural cycle might make the pill more acceptable to Catholics.

‘A victory for all women’ in Pakistan

In 2016, Khadija Siddiqi, a Pakistani student, was stabbed 23 times in broad daylight by her ex-boyfriend. Her assailant, Shah Hussain, was initially sentenced to seven years but, in 2018, had his acquittal overturned by the high court, after his defence viciously attacked Siddiqi’s character. On Wednesday Siddiqi finally got justice, with Pakistan’s supreme court overturning Hussein’s acquittal. “Today is a victory for all women,” Siddiqi said. “I think this case will serve as a steppingstone for the future cases of women in Pakistan.”

Is Jacinda Ardern really a feminist?

The BBC raised a lot of eyebrows down under when it questioned the prime minister of New Zealand’s feminist credentials this week. Apparently she might not be a feminist because she has no plans to propose to her partner. OK, then.

German man argues women’s parking spots discriminatory

The Bavarian town of Eichstätt installed women-only spaces in a central car park after a woman was sexually assaulted nearby in 2016. The spaces are near the exits and well-lit. A man has now taken it upon himself to argue these spaces are discriminatory and courts agree. Really hope this guy feels proud of himself.

Podcast of the week

I know I’m several months behind on this, but I just finished Believed from NPR. The podcast tells the story of how the former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s survivors won justice after decades of not being believed by the people and institutions which should have protected them. If you haven’t listened yet, then it’s well worth downloading this weekend.