Sexist language explained: How curse words carry biases against women

Swearing isn’t new. Neither in English nor in Hindi. What is striking is the pattern in which it occurs: almost every curse, from “c**t” to behenc**d, leans on sexist language. The punchline of profanity has always been the same: make women the target of insult.

Aryan Khan’s directorial debut only proves how normalised this has become. The Ba****ds Of Bollywood (2025) drops “motherf***er” like punctuation in its viral track Gafoor—15 times to be exact—flaunting profanity as a badge of edginess. But it is not an outlier. Streaming hits from Mirzapur to Sacred Gameshave already made offensive language routine. Some critics argue it is overdone, with cuss words crammed into scripts every few minutes, while actors like Paresh Rawal have called it a “cheap tactic for eyeballs.” Yet the pattern holds: whether on the big screen or OTT, profanity rarely breaks the script of patriarchy. Profanity may be mainstream in entertainment now, but its foundations remain sexist.

An ease in usage of cuss words would have been unthinkable in India a decade ago. Normalisation has occurred through sheer repetition. A 2014 study on linguistic change notes that when a community embraces a shift, once-taboo words slide into everyday speech. “Words considered strong a few years ago might be seen as mild, and words used lightheartedly before could now be considered inappropriate,” it adds. 

The violence against women through gendered cuss words

Hindi cuss words make the bias very apparent. A 2020 survey revealed that half of the top ten words were gendered: behenc**d(#5), ma***c**d(#6), ch**hiyaa(#7), bhad**(#9), and r**di(#10). Kutt**atopped the list. 

Globally, the list isn’t different. A Cambridge study classified sexist insults against women into predictable buckets: sexuality (slut, whore), age (hag, crone), animals (cow, dog), and women’s body parts (twat, c**t). Even everyday labels like “girl” or “woman” slip into slurs when the intent is contempt. 

“Cuss words have always been gendered because the society we live in is patriarchal, where women are seen as property, and so, tied to a man’s honour,” says Dr Devina Krishna, PhD in Linguistics, and Assistant Professor in Patna Women’s College (Autonomous). “Hence, abusing a man’s female relative is considered as a severe attack on the man’s honour. India has a rich tradition of gaalis that sexualise women to hurt a man’s pride.” 

An Indian study in June 2024 confirmed the same bias, finding that women’s association with insults and curses highlights a “troubling pattern that reinforces the societal devaluation of women”. The findings show “how profanity, beyond its linguistic implications, acts as a mechanism that perpetuates and strengthens the existing patriarchal system”. 

Language itself is gendered: It took decades for words like “chairman” and “manpower” to be replaced with gender-neutral terms such as  “chairperson” and “workforce”. Language mirrors power structures, and cuss words mirror who society devalues.

“Cuss words are gendered because society and culture has been biased for so long. [They] focus on the feminine as a reflection of power structures—or at least an effort to maintain it. Historically, when women started inheriting or owning property, language started reflecting the division of power in society, putting women in the subservient position. ‘Sissy,’ an abbreviation of ‘sister,’ became slang for being ‘weak’,” says Vidushi Gupta, 32, a doctoral researcher in Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. 

The sexualisation of abuse has its roots in property and inheritance. “It became important for communities to regulate the sexuality of women. After all, the progeny she produces inherits the property. So, a lot of gendered cuss words were about having sex with a person’s mother or sisters, attaching a premium because these roles [were considered] sacred,” explains Gupta. 

Men swear to show their masculinity. Women are judged for swearing

Swearing is still coded as a performance of strength. Studies show that swearing is often linked to masculinity, while women are expected to be demure and cuss-free. “Language has developed over centuries to primarily favour men, serving their needs and interests. The use of derogatory words is often seen as a forceful or assertive action,” it states. 

Mumbai-based stand-up comedian Kajol Srinivasan learned that double standard first-hand. Convent-schooling ingrained the belief that “good women” don’t swear. Yet in comedy, she uses the word “f**k” often, thought she later discovered the word “r**di” comes from the word “raand” which means “widow”. “Or, a woman without the protection of a man,” exclaims Srinivasan. “‘Bas***d,’ too, is a cuss word because the mother didn’t marry the father. The child has to bear the brunt of the woman being sexually active when unmarried,” she says. 

Srinivasan has been policed for her profanity—once asked to apologise and hug an audience member she called an “asshole” in jest. “He was so insulted by the fact that a woman had cussed at him,” says Srinivasan. Another time, she was scolded by a cab driver for saying  “Oh my god, that ch**hiyaa” on a call. 

“When a woman cusses, there’s a certain perception among men that ‘anything goes,’ as these women don’t have the protection as a ‘proper woman’. Women too know they are making a rebellious statement when they cuss. A well-accepted word like ‘f**k’ uttered by a woman still makes heads turn,” says Srinivasan. Mumbai-based creator Raina Raonta associates this with upbringing. “Women were considered an extension of men for the longest time. It’s only in the last decade or so that women have got a taste of the privilege of pursuing a career,” she says. 

The gender gap in profanity

Men often swear when angry or frustrated. Women, by contrast, view swearing in anger as a loss of control and fear it might strain relationships. They tend to hesitate—aware of how easily they’ll be judged. Research backs the split.

In India, upbringing and societal norms make the divide sharper. “Men sometimes use profanities as a means of bonding with each other, where it also has social and emotional functions. In a way, it defines the strength of the friendship too. Chu** and kami** are common,” says Dr Krishna. 

“Some men abuse more than others because society entitles them to do so as a means to stay in control. Men cussing when they’re a part of groups shows a gendered group dynamic—they are cussing because those around them are. And group dynamics do seep into the way a person behaves,” explains Pallavi Narayan, author and gender and cultural studies scholar. She notes that women tend to swear while driving in male-dominated spaces, where profanity itself becomes an act of rebellion. 

Manan Rathore, a Jaipur-based entrepreneur has seen how women are policed for their use of language. “Women are judged differently for everything. Especially when they express themselves freely. My own school friends will want to talk about it for 15 minutes,” he recalls. Rathore himself avoids gendered cuss words, calling them “indecent and disrespectful towards women.” Growing up in a female-centric household made the use of such sexist insults jarring for him. “Boys usually pick these words up from other boys. But I never felt like I was missing out on something because I wasn’t swearing,” he says. 

How sexist swear words shape culture

Songs like BC Sutta(2005) and dialogues like Dilli Se Hun Bhenc**d (Go Goa Gone, 2013) made gaalis iconic. Television series like Mirzapurand films like Gangs of Wasseypurfurther cemented their cool factor. In the schools in Darjeeling, educator Rini Chatterjee remembers boys swearing as a rite of masculinity years before girls did. 

Actor Kirti Kulhari—whose film Full Plate premiered at the Busan International Film Festival recently—says she didn’t grow up with cuss words, but had to inhabit them on stage while starring in the play Sakharam Binder. “There is patriarchy at the core of gendered cuss words because women have been treated and looked at a certain way,” she says, adding that there is a sense of individual responsibility at the end of the day. “Of course there are emotions like frustration and anger that all humans need to express, but not everyone does it via cussing.” 

For Srinivasan, watching someone else cuss can feel like release. “It’s like the catharsis of watching a fight scene in movies—an experience that’s denied to women,” she says. 

Cuss words as power play 

Profanity has long been tied to power. A 2014 study noted that taboo language once targeted religion, then shifted to sex, later to politics, and now often to race. In India, caste is also embedded in offensive language. “Gawar, which means villager, is used as an insult that depicts a cultural bias which devalues rural life and elevates urban life,” says Dr Krishna. 

“Wherever there are power structures, terms will be used in a way to reinforce it. Like calling someone Bhang**–equivalent to practising untouchability since the community is historically associated with untouchability—is a means of reinforcing upper and lower class hierarchy,” explains Gupta. 

Queerness, too, became an insult. Srinivasan recalls how in the 1990s, “gay” was a casual punchline. Bollywood clownish caricatures of effeminate men only cemented it. Television hasn’t moved any far either. Shows like The Kapil Sharma Show (2016-), still mimes humour from men in drag. The logic is the same as most sexist insults: being a woman or anything coded as feminine, is the joke.

The same bias turns women’s bodies into shorthand for weakness. “Don’t cry like a girl”. “Grow a pair”. “Man up”. A woman’s genitalia becomes a slur in itself. And when women succeed, sexist language strips them of agency.“A powerful woman is a bitch, or there’s an implication of it with phrases like ‘yeh toh khaa jaati hai’,” says Chatterjee, citing Pooja Bhatt’s character in Bombay Begums (2021).

Globally, Black queer drag and ballroom culture had already rewritten the script. Words once sharpened as slurs were spun into performance. Bitch became banter, c**t a battle cry. “The word ‘queer’ is in itself a reclamation of the word,” says Delhi-based artist Aditya Raj. “The community understood the need to take away the stigma and reclaim words like ‘queer’ because they were also used as cuss words.” 

Raj adds, “Older queer people and activists in the US and Australia—where these terms come from—still don’t like using the word ‘queer’ because it carries a lot of pain and trauma for them; they still consider the word as an insult. There’s another section of people who have reclaimed the word, and don’t feel bad when it’s used for them. Women have done that in a similar sense by reclaiming ‘bad girl’ and ‘bitch’ as terms to describe someone who isn’t adhering to societal standards.” 

RuPaul’s Drag Race—and later Pose, Legendary, and even Beyoncé’s nods to ballroom—dragged that language out of underground clubs and into pop culture.  “Drag queens reclaimed spaces for themselves. They’ve had to fight to be taken seriously and have been instrumental in reclaiming spaces and words—being slutty and not feel bad about it, which empowered them to be able to navigate it,” says Vikas Narula, co-owner of Delhi’s Depot 48, which hosts music gigs regularly. 

Social media amplified it further, turning Black queer slang into viral captions, audios, and memes. By the time it reached India, it was everywhere: in drag shows, across nightlife, and in the casual shorthand of Gen Z. What began as survival in queer culture now shapes the mainstream vocabulary of defiance—yet profanity itself still carries the old sexist weight.

Can cuss words be reclaimed? 

Once a slur for prostitutes, bitch now turns on itself. In women’s circles, it signals defiance, not disgrace. “That allows the group with lesser power to have a say. Women are reclaiming phrases with ‘woman up,’ owning up to being a bitch or slut, and rejecting notions of femininity imposed on them. It’s about taking power out of that vocabulary, so that being called a ‘slut’ isn’t an insult,” says Gupta. 

Not every rebrand works. Designer Masaba Gupta’s lipsticks called Air Gasm and Cash Cow are meant as cheeky reclamations, but, as Srinivasan points out, “no one reclaimed the word ‘cow’ till now. It has, in fact, been reclaimed by the Right wing.”Swapping female slurs with male ones also fails. Male sexuality is rarely stigmatised; it is coded as strength. “It’s only the unmarried, sexually active women that are stigmatised. Plus, if it’s the woman using the reversed-gendered cuss word, she herself will slut-shamed,” explains Raonta. 

The only way to strip cuss words of gender is to use them so often they lose meaning, or swap them with Gen Z neutral fillers like “mid”. “Swear words are powerful due to their taboo nature and the impact they then have. Gen Z uses swear words often, and is positive about it, making it more casual,” elaborates Dr Krishna, noting how the younger generation could be bringing about a change with a non-gendered, non-discriminatory lingo that doesn’t reinforce power structures. 

A 2025 research and survey found that 56.2 per cent of Gen Z cuss in casual conversations, with 58.5 per cent using the swear word f**k, 60.7 per cent using sh*t, and 23 per cent using bitch. 

At the same time, younger Indians are more likely to replace sexist language with new vocabulary that names the behaviour itself. “They are using their words to address the root cause of the issues instead of cussing,” says Rathore. “Mansplaining” captures condescension, “man child” immaturity. Even ordinary words undergo shifts: “man” alludes to disappointment, “girl” to delight.  

Much of this language playbook comes from Black queer culture, where drag and ballroom scenes experimented with words that once cut the deepest. Slurs were bent, twisted, and re-performed until they carried wit, defiance, or solidarity instead of shame. Gen Z’s embrace of that ethos—casual, irreverent, often online—has only made it more mainstream and acceptable.

The question for India is whether the most enduring gendered cuss words can ever be emptied out in the same way. Because if “bitch” can mean power and “slut” can mean choice, maybe “behen***d” and “ma***c**d” will one day mean nothing at all.