A ‘pyramid of egregiousness’ of sexist language

“Don’t call me babe!”
— Pamela Anderson, Barb Wire (1996)

Some are calling it one more tirade by angst-ridden feminists. Others are pointing out its importance in a sexist, chauvinistic world. But the Pyramid Of Egregiousness is doing exactly what it was created to do: get people to talk about sexist language in the media.

The Pyramid Of Egregiousness is a classification of sexist language put up on the website, nameitchangeit.org. You can’t be faulted if you think the pyramid looks ‘cute’. It’s after all a bright little triangle of red and orange bands. And when you move your mouse on it, parts of it open up, and inside, you see a variety of sexist terminology. It’s like looking out of your window through a Venetian blind — at a sexist world.

The pyramid has three levels: at the base is ‘Just plain sexist’, above it is “Really damn sexist”, and at the top of the pyramid are words and usages that would qualify as ‘severe misogyny’.

The pyramid already has a sizeable database. There are some old favourites, some ‘catchy’ new ones, and some one-hit wonders. Under Severe Misogyny, you have language that is derogatory and filled with sexual innuendo. These include words like bitch, whore, slut, skank, man-eater, and new-entrants like cougar and MILF (Mother I’d Like To F*** in case you didn’t know), and, for all those women who speak their mind, ‘Feminazi’ or ‘fascist feminists’.

The band branded Really Damn Sexist includes terms like PMS, bad mother, ice queen, uppity, nagging, shrill, cold. And in Just Plain Sexist, you have phrases which are so commonly used that most of us don’t think twice about them. These include queries like ‘What’s with her hair/her neckline/ her skirt?” and labeling of a woman as ‘emotional’, ‘temperamental’, ‘bossy’, etcetera. 

These words are to be looked at not in isolation but in the context of their usage. Shagun Luthra, a TV producer, has this to say, “‘Emotional’ may seem like a harmless word, but when a woman is called ‘emotional’, it means she is not to be taken seriously. It completely trivialises her and what she has to say. Similarly, at work, a woman will be called bossy and difficult when she is being assertive, but when a man does it, he’s never called bossy, he’s just being assertive.”

Both the website and the pyramid were created by a group of American feminists as part of a Name It Change It campaign. It documents instances of sexist language in the media, and asks people to participate in their campaign. All you need to do is to log in at the website (nameitchangeit.org) and — yes you guessed right — ‘name it’. And hopefully it will be ‘changed’.

What about Indian contenders to the pyramid? Maal, ‘item’ and janaani seem to get the most votes. S Bhaduri, a
female media professional, says, “Out on the streets people sometimes yell at me, calling me a maal or an ‘item’. It makes you feel like shit, like all you are is a person someone wants to have sex with.” The Urdu word janaani (roughly translated it means ‘girl-like’) is something that really gets Luthra’s goat. “Whenever a girl makes a goof-up, people say what a janaani-like behaviour. But why should that be?”

A new word that is rapidly gaining currency is ‘cougar’. (It even has a TV sitcom named after it: Cougar Town.) According to many, it is offensive because it makes the woman concerned sound predatory. Demi Moore, often called a cougar for marrying Aston Kutcher, 15 years her junior, once said, “Cougar has become so distasteful. I really hate that expression.” She likes to be called puma instead. But then, at 47, Moore is less puma (a woman in her 30s whose male partner is younger than her) and almost saber tooth (a 50-plus woman who has a younger companion).