Most Indian profanities are profoundly sexist, and so deeply ingrained that even women use curses that humiliate their sisters. Let’s find a way to express anger without misogyny
I was shocked. Scrolling through my Twitter feed, I stopped at an exchange between a women’s rights activist I know and a troll in which the activist, someone who often talked to me about the gendered nature of our cuss words responded using maa-behen ki gaali (misogynistic abuse).
My mind went round and round, trying to decipher if this was hypocrisy or an unconscious expression of rage. I settled for the latter, as gendered slurs are so embedded in our everyday speech that we use them (mostly in angry or in stresss) without stopping to think. In unguarded moments, we spit them out.
