Words and terms to learn or burn

TO BURN:

Basically, anything that reduces women and doesn't have a male equivalent.

While the dictionary itself is a sea of pro-male language we'll be here all day if we go down that Mariana Trench.

This week we'll concentrate on some of the more modern terms irritating the Australian landscape.

Mumpreneur: Yes, apparently running a business and being a mother is a novel concept so let's come up with a term that ensures it stays that way.

Busy mums: Who are these women? A direct hit at all mothers because if you aren't always busy, busy, busy, you must be useless and lazy. This trickery ensures women feel like they can never do enough. Note: Women need to call this BS out because they're the only ones NOT benefiting from it. (See: Delegate).

Stay at home mum: It sounds like a dead-end job but it's not. It's called parenting and managing a household and should be interchangeable between the sexes whether it's full time or part.

Working mother: Jane + children + job = working mother. John + children + job = mechanic.

Me time: Not only does it make you sound like a victim in your own life, it also encourages the men and children around you to think 'them time' is the norm.

Sorry: Stop apologising for everything. Use it sparingly like when someone dies not because you can't do the usual 18 things at once, only 17.

Smile: A narky demand from a male stranger exclusively for women whose resting bitch face annoys the hell out of them (because women are only here for their amusement or pleasure).

Incel: Short for involuntarily celibate, because it's the women's fault they aren't getting any. Incels often send death threats and have been known to stalk and kill females because of this — yet they are still in a quandary about why they can't get a girlfriend.

Can't you take a joke: No. Not if it means portraying women as being less significant in order to keep you in your elevated position.

TO LEARN: (words used exclusively to reduce women)

Feisty/abrasive/intense/stroppy/bitch etc: Women who demand reciprocal rights to fairness, unapologetically.

Emotional/irrational/hysterical: Women who stand up for themselves.

Ambitious/demanding/ballbreaker/bossy: Women interested in advancing their careers, particularly in male-dominated fields.

Misandrist/manhater: A lazy shutdown used by men because they believe the only reason women want to be treated equally is because they hate men. Hyprocrisy doesn't get more straightforward than this glorious example.

Airhead/high maintenance: Anything that implies vacuousness or dependency on men.

The missus: the piece of property they acquired when you married them.

Frigid: She doesn't want to have sex with you.

WORDS AND TERMS TO LEARN (their intentions):

Rape culture: It's a thing. Anything men do or say that continues the devaluing of women keeps this vile culture thriving. From sexually grunting at random females at the pub to expecting your wife to clean up after you, in this world women can't get anything right.

This negativity doesn't discriminate so it puts every female in the position where all roads can lead to rape. When she is raped, at best the woman or girl is scarred for life, at worst it's the last thing that will happen her. This act of rape can occur anywhere, from the much-cited dark alley way, to more common nursing home or matrimonial bed.

#metoo: a reminder to men about just how endemic rape culture is.

Slut shaming: It's what men do to keep women reduced because females can't return the insult with any gravity. Harks back to men being free to sleep with anyone, while women have to be virgins and then monogamous. The mathematics isn't the only thing that's off with this misogynist formula.

Derailing: It's a ploy men use to try and stop conversations they don't want to hear, like the epidemic of violence against women in Australia. "But Muslims are worse …" is a popular derailing retort because they get to trot out a racist barb as well as a sexist one.

Victim blaming: AKA blaming women for everything. From framing dead women so they seem responsible for their own murders “she nagged”, to telling them where and when to walk, and what to wear to avoid being raped.

AND THESE DOOZIES:

Helicopter parents: These human drones are going to be the downfall of the next generation and one of the reasons aspiring school teachers quit within the first five years.

Entitlement and empathy: Forget ‘mumma' and ‘dadda’. Make these the first words to come out of your baby's mouth and then teach them the meaning.

Delegate: women need to do more of this, at work and definitely at home.

No: Women don't say this enough, full stop.

(a version of this article was first published in The Daily Examiner/The Daily Telegraph in 2020)