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and misogyny. The epithet is a weapon, whether hurled or delivered in a sulky or measured tone. The epithet is inevitably an act of hostility used in a spirit of vengeance. Calling a woman a name

temporarily brands her; it molds social perceptions of her in a way

that upholds her social inferiority; it frequently comes before the

fist or before the fuck, and so women learn to associate it with uses

of themselves that they abhor, hostile uses of themselves; and it

frequently comes as he hits, as he fucks. The epithet degrades a

woman by degrading her sex, sexuality, and personal integrity; it

expresses a serious, not a frivolous, hatred—the hatred of women,

a serious hatred with serious consequences to those against whom

it is directed. Epithets as sex-based insults are like machine-gun

rounds, fired off, bringing down whatever gets hit—anything

female around. The hints of these sex-based insults, shadowed references to them, evocations of them, are used with persistence and skill in the public devaluing of women—in hating women and in

the politics of contempt for women, in common discourse and in

cultural discourse. Every time this use of a lexicon of hatred passes

unremarked, every time the hate is expressed and there is no visible rebellion, no discernible resistance, some part of the woman to whom it happens dies and some part of any woman who watches

dies too. Each time the use of such an epithet or its evocation

passes without retaliation, something in women dies. Each time

slut, dyke, prude, is used to keep women intimidated and each

time its use is not repudiated (the repudiation cannot rest on

whether or not the accusation is in any sense accurate, only in its

use), antifeminism has stepped on another female life and crushed

some part of it; woman hating has humiliated and hurt another

woman or a woman again. Each time an honorable word— like lesbian— is used as a weapon of insult, or some honorable act— like a woman having sex because she wants to with a lover or lovers of

her choice— is used as a weapon of insult, or some honorable

choice— like being celibate— is used as a weapon of insult, the

women who are and who do and who choose are irrevocably hurt

and diminished. The answer is not as simple as losing one’s fear of

the words themselves (whether they apply or not), because any

woman would be a fool not to be afraid of what is behind the

words. Behind the words is the man who uses them and the power

of his whole class over the woman against whom they are used.

Each time contempt is expressed for the dyke, the prude, the slut,

hatred is being expressed toward all women. Whether the insults

are accepted in society, tolerated, encouraged, the main stuff of

humor, or m erely passively acquiesced in, the devaluing of women

is perpetuated, the intimidation of women is furthered. Each time

the insults are paraded or whispered— used against a woman as

insult— the insults gain in potency from use, acceptance, and repetition; and any woman, however much she is or is not what the insult conveys, is more liable to manipulation, distortion, extortion, slander, and harassment; and antifeminism and woman hating are that much more entrenched. Woman hating is the passion; antifeminism is its ideological defense; in the sex-based insult passion and ideology are united in an act of denigration and intimidation.

The tolerance for sex-based insult and its effectiveness in discrediting women are measures of the virulence of antifeminism and woman hating: how pervasive they are, how persuasive they are,

how deeply rooted they are, what chance women stand against

them. In our society, sex-based insult is the coin of the realm.

Women live defensively, not just against rape but against the language of the rapist—the language of what a woman is called in intimacy and in public, loud and soft.

Antifeminism is also articulated through social models, of which

there are three of continuing major importance: the separate-but-

equal model; the woman-superior model; and the trusty, familiar

male-dominant model.

The use of the separate-but-equal model is particularly cynical in

the United States, where that model applied to race was the foundation for systematic racial segregation enforced by police power.

Equality was always a chimera or a lie; separation was real. The

model held that social institutions could be reasonably and fairly