The Whore of Babylon versus Don Juan: Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Promiscuityin English Slang

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing English slang labels used for promiscuous people. Sixty-five expressions are extracted from The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008) and The Oxford Dictionary of Slang (1998). Since slang is both a linguistic and sociological phenomenon (Mattiello 2008: 30), these expressions are analyzed from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Drawing on the methodology proposed by N. Fairclough (1995a: 98), CDA is conducted on three levels: descriptive, interpretative, and explanatory. Relying on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), the analysis aims at identifying the predominant source domains that the domain of female/male promiscuity is mapped to in English slang. It demonstrates that this particular sexual lifestyle is romanticized, approved, and even celebrated when practiced by men, while women are degraded, condemned, or even demonized for doing the same. The results further show that the discursive practice is systematic and consistent. Due to the dialectical nature of discursive and social practices, the paper argues that this gender-biased discourse, which abounds in slang slurs for women while there is a scarcity of euphemized slang expressions for men, is not only shaped by the societal norms, but also operates as a mechanism of imposing the double standards for genders. In addition, slang terms may have the power to shape the social attitudes within the communities, but not only those which create and use such slang slurs on a daily basis. Wider communities exposed to such conceptualizations, by simply being aware of their existence, may be manipulated into believing that the gender inequity in using offensive language is standard and hence normal and acceptable practice.