Wordslut

A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

By: Amanda Montell

Narrated by: Amanda Montell

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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"
• "F--k 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.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Amanda Montell (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

A good book

An Interesting take on words - a perspective and facts I've never heard before and that I appreciated. I laughed out loud a handful of times. The author writes and reads in a very unpretentious way that makes the subject matter approachable and pleasant.

Interesting perspective, great info!

Loved that the author narrates! Amanda has great points along with really funny commentary. Anyone with confusion regarding gender identity/pronoun usage, read this! Xx

Just excellent.

Engaging, interesting, and informative. I’m really looking forward to Montell’s next book. I’ve read this and Cultish and they were both so fun and easy to follow for non-fiction and she’s a great narrator as well.

Such an important read!!!

Please read this book to help make our language & culture more inclusive! Highly recommend! The narrator made it very entertaining & engaging 😊

A nation's language can display a lot

(As posted on Goodreads)
In many ways, I ought to have been a linguistics (or biochem) rather than mathematics major in college! Language is so important (and fascinating) to a society, including how it reflects the society and the workings of the society overall and how it changes year to year (decade to decade) to reflect said society as it does so.
This book discusses the language and linguistics of the US and their effect on, and more precisely how they are affected by sexism and prejudice exhibited by our nation. It discusses more than just the language and linguistics themselves, but the underlying prejudices displayed by them, and some of what we currently ARE doing and should encourage to help offset some of the negative impacts.

Amazing read!

this book has already changed how I surreal and how I listen to others. So good!

So good

Perfect for linguistics nerds, so interesting. Interesting intersection between gay and feminist language trends. Amanda Montell is my idol

Wordslut

I loved this book. Articulate, thoughtful, educated, inspiring, and entertaining. Well read, well researched, clear, intelligent, and to the point.

Insightful

A very interesting listen on language and the origin and affect it has on our daily lives.

Loved this book!

I’m so grateful for all the new information this book provided. It opened my eyes to the purpose of so many linguistic traits that I utilize and I now feel prepared to educate others on this topic, ya know?