The other day, in the random cogitative peregrinations that constantly occupy my mind, it occurred to me that there are a great many derogatory terms that refer to females, most of which in some manner insinuate that the woman in question engages in sexual behavior too readily. So I did some research and came up with the following list of such terms:
harridan
harlot
slut
wanton woman
strumpet
trollop
wench
hussy
jade
baggage
tart
floozy
Jezebel
whore
loose woman
easy woman
woman of easy virtue
nymphomaniac
scarlet woman
temptress
seductress
houri
fallen woman
fornicatress
fornicatrix
This is certainly a formidable list — 25 derogatory terms for women, and there are some (such as ’cunt’) that I did not include because. while they are certaintly derogatory, they do not imply sexual misbehavior on the woman’s part.
But then I thought it might be interesting to search for comparable terms applied to men. I expected that they would be fewer in number. I was wrong:
libertine
swinger
rake
rove
wanton
womanizer
debaucher
rounder
wolf
skirt chaser
gay dog
gallant
philanderer
lady-killer
Lothario
Don Juan
Casanova
lecher
satyr
dirty old man
ravager
violator
despoiler
defiler
rapist
This list is also 25 terms long. There are, to be sure, some differences between the two lists. Some of the male terms (e.g., ‘swinger’, ‘womanizer’, ‘gay dog’, ‘gallant’) have an undertone of envy or even respect, whereas the female terms, as a group, have a stronger condemnatory tone. Consider these pairings:
slut — libertine
strumpet — skirt chaser
floozy — wolf
whore — dirty old man
Jezebel — Casanova
All in all, these two lists demonstrate that excessive sexual activity is strongly condemned among women, and lightly condemned among men. But as a final contradictory observation, consider this pairing of terms for the same person. The first is the male term for that woman, the second the female term:
mistress — home wrecker