seeing a lot of anti-women sentiment on Twitter these days so just making a list of bad types of women, old and new
All the insults on this list seem to be (or have been, because some are not used much now) directed towards women. Felmlee et al 'Sexist slurs' is a good article discussing Twitter harassment of women and how insults to women commonly draw on stereotypes.
There is a debate about whether 'TERF' is an insult or merely a descriptor (similar to bigot) but I've included it here because it's normally directed at women. Similarly to 'Karen', there seems to be no male equivalent word. This suggests to me that it relates to gendered expectations of women as being caring and supportive (see Kate Manne 'Down Girl').
I think words like 'Karen' and 'TERF' are new because they are particularly used by the left, people who would see themselves as supporting social justice, thus they are gendered left wing insults. They take a behaviour or attitude which people on the left agree is bad (racism, transphobia) and direct censure for it particularly towards women, suggesting that either women are particularly inclined to this or that women deserve particular censure for this. It's concerning because it can divide the left (encouraging really bitter fights between women on the left, two of which I've just seen on Twitter) and support patriarchy, which is currently on the ascendant in many countries, including Australia.
As far as I'm aware, there is no evidence that women are more racist than men (I can't find much research evidence on this, but this 2003 article suggests they are slightly less, although the difference is not great) and, as in nearly all violent crimes, men are much more likely to commit violence, including against transgender people (see eg Stotzer 2009). Thus there is no particular reason why there should be no male equivalent for these terms, and it could be expected that men would face even more censure. The fact that they don't suggest these terms fit the category of gendered insults, which draw on stereotypes of how women ought to behave.
There's a recent book out on why women are blamed so much, but I haven't yet read it. Maybe I can look at this further later. Anyway here is my list:
TERFs
Karens
Plain Janes
Aunt Sallies
Bitches
Basic bitches
Dogs
Cats
Cows
Pussies
Witches
Mad fucking witches
Sluts
Slags
Town bikes
Schoolmarms
Barren spinsters
Frumps
Gold diggers
Dumb blondes
Molls
Hags
Bimbos
Feminazis
Breastfeeding nazis
Hairy legged feminists
Harpies
Mean girls
Whores
Madams
Hussies
Tarts
(edited today to take ‘Beckies’ out because think that’s more a term of criticism by Black women for certain behaviour by White women specifically - critique of racism/privilege but could not have male equivalent so it’s different from Karens and TERFs, which could have male equivalents but don’t)
All the insults on this list seem to be (or have been, because some are not used much now) directed towards women. Felmlee et al 'Sexist slurs' is a good article discussing Twitter harassment of women and how insults to women commonly draw on stereotypes.
There is a debate about whether 'TERF' is an insult or merely a descriptor (similar to bigot) but I've included it here because it's normally directed at women. Similarly to 'Karen', there seems to be no male equivalent word. This suggests to me that it relates to gendered expectations of women as being caring and supportive (see Kate Manne 'Down Girl').
I think words like 'Karen' and 'TERF' are new because they are particularly used by the left, people who would see themselves as supporting social justice, thus they are gendered left wing insults. They take a behaviour or attitude which people on the left agree is bad (racism, transphobia) and direct censure for it particularly towards women, suggesting that either women are particularly inclined to this or that women deserve particular censure for this. It's concerning because it can divide the left (encouraging really bitter fights between women on the left, two of which I've just seen on Twitter) and support patriarchy, which is currently on the ascendant in many countries, including Australia.
As far as I'm aware, there is no evidence that women are more racist than men (I can't find much research evidence on this, but this 2003 article suggests they are slightly less, although the difference is not great) and, as in nearly all violent crimes, men are much more likely to commit violence, including against transgender people (see eg Stotzer 2009). Thus there is no particular reason why there should be no male equivalent for these terms, and it could be expected that men would face even more censure. The fact that they don't suggest these terms fit the category of gendered insults, which draw on stereotypes of how women ought to behave.
There's a recent book out on why women are blamed so much, but I haven't yet read it. Maybe I can look at this further later. Anyway here is my list:
TERFs
Karens
Plain Janes
Aunt Sallies
Bitches
Basic bitches
Dogs
Cats
Cows
Pussies
Witches
Mad fucking witches
Sluts
Slags
Town bikes
Schoolmarms
Barren spinsters
Frumps
Gold diggers
Dumb blondes
Molls
Hags
Bimbos
Feminazis
Breastfeeding nazis
Hairy legged feminists
Harpies
Mean girls
Whores
Madams
Hussies
Tarts
(edited today to take ‘Beckies’ out because think that’s more a term of criticism by Black women for certain behaviour by White women specifically - critique of racism/privilege but could not have male equivalent so it’s different from Karens and TERFs, which could have male equivalents but don’t)
Here's another interesting article https://gen.medium.com/a-cultural-history-of-feminine-nouns-turned-into-insults-4f6d49a3e4be
