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List of sexual slurs

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The following is a list of sexual slurs that are, or have been, used to refer to members of a given sexual minority, gender, sex, or sexual orientation in a derogatory or pejorative manner. Each term is listed, followed by its definition, usage, and origin. Not all terms on the list are considered equally offensive.

Many of these terms are used more widely than would be imagined based on their "definition"; for example, gay may used as a term of disparagement to refer to any person or thing the speaker thinks is stupid. The key here is that the person using the slur intends to harm the person so labeled by associating them with a sexual minority. The motivation for using a sexual slur is often sexism and/or anti-gay bias (see homophobia).

As seen above with the term gay, words which at one point had predominantly positive connotations and came from the minority groups themselves are often eventually used against them as slurs. It is also not uncommon for members of minority groups to appropriate an originally disparaging term and use it for themselves, as an act of self-assertion. However, they may be extremely offended if it is used by members of the majority group. The word nigger is an example. Queer, on the other hand, has been re-claimed by many members of sexual minorities and is the term by which these individuals would prefer to be called, as long as it is in a respectful manner.

Some of the slurs used against women are also used aganist men, but with the addition of the qualifier male. So slut becomes male slut, and whore becomes male whore. These uses are problematic because they imply that being a woman is a normal characteristic of a slut or a whore, and thus when a man is a slut or whore it must be specified. Similarly, by common usage being a man is the implicit state of a prick and a female prick requires the specifier. See the article Non-sexist language for a discussion of related issues.

Many of the terms which people propose as gender equivalents — sets of different terms to describe the same trait in males and females — are actually asymmetrically biased in favor of males. For example, bastard and bitch are commonly used as in roughly equivalent ways for the two genders, but the former originally meant a child born out of wedlock while the latter is a term for a female dog.

University of New England researcher David Plummer argues that the following anti-gay terms that often connotate effeminate behaviour are also used when young boys betray "peer group solidarity" or fail to, "measure up to 'hegemonic' boys' standards rather than necessarily being 'feminine'." Thus, he argues, "homophobia has its early roots in boyhood 'otherness'—specifically in being different from the collectively authorized expectations of male peers." [1] (http://www.xyonline.net/downloads/questformanhood.pdf) (PDF file)

See also: List of ethnic slurs


A to C | D to G | H to K | L to Q | R to Z


A to C

D to G

  • daddy's girl - a masculine female who is controlled by her father or has a good relationship with him
  • dagger - lesbian, variant of dyke
  • deviate - gay male or lesbian
  • dick - penis, insensitive male
  • dickhead - penis head, insensitive male
  • doughnut puncher - gay male
  • dyke - lesbian, many possible origins: may come from "dyked out" or getting dressed up; possibly from hermaphrodite->maphrodite->maphrodike or from Boudicca, a female Celtic chieftain of the Iceni tribe
  • fag - gay male, short for faggot. Also a non-sexual British term for cigarrette.
  • faggot - gay male; from the French fagot and Italian fa(n)gotto meaning "bundle of sticks", being derived either from the usage of the term to refer to younger boys in all male English boarding schools being forced to gather wood for the older boys fires or from the burning of heretics
  • fairy - effeminate and/or gay male
  • fanny - buttocks (U.S.) or vagina (U.K.), insensitive male
  • femme - feminine, effeminate and/or gay male
  • flamer - effeminate, flamboyant gay male
  • Frenchman - gay male, origins unknown
  • fruit - effeminate and/or gay male
  • fudge packer - gay male, refers to anal sex; originated as prison slang
  • galboy - gay male who has the "feminine" role in a relationship
  • gash gobbler - lesbian, refers to cunnilingus
  • gay - gay male; weak, stupid, or bad, this usage implies that gay people or being gay is weak, stupid, or generally bad; however, gay is also the preferred synonym for homosexual or other terms when used respectfully
  • girl - effeminate male, as in "don't be a girl"; or a gay male who has the "feminine" role in a relationship
  • goober gobbler - gay male
  • gump - gay male (prison slang)

H to K

  • hetero - refers to a "straight" person; that is, a male who is attracted to females or vice versa.
  • ho - abbreviation of whore: sex worker; promiscuous woman; woman who does not conform to societies behavioural, sexual, and clothing norms
  • hom - gay male (short for "homo")
  • homme - a masculine pr lesbian female
  • homo - gay male, see homosexual
  • homosexual - most often gay male, sometimes lesbian; invented in 1869, the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington's Glossary for school employees states: "Homosexual: Avoid this term; it is clinical, distancing and archaic. Sometimes appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-sex is the preferred adj.). When referring to people, as opposed to behavior, homosexual is considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred, at least in the Northwest."
  • illegitimate - birth out of wedlock
  • jammy feminist - lesbian, refers to the misogynistic perspective that all feminists are lesbians
  • joto - gay male (prison slang)

L to Q

R to Z

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