Not trying to take your insults away from you

[sasha_feather]

Here are some insults and epithets that are ungendered and not ableist.

From dharma_slut-- (I've taken out a few that I dislike for one reason or another, click the link for full list):

blundering, brutish, feckless, foolish,

heedless, impulsive, inadvertent, inconsiderate,

indelicate, insensitive, instinctive, mechanical,

negligent, oblivious, outrageous,

rash, rude, selfish, senseless, tactless,

thoughtless, uncaring, unconscious, undiplomatic,

unheeding, unintended, unmeant, unmindful,

unpremeditated, unreasoning, untactful,

unwise, vacant, witless, abrupt, abusive,

bad-mannered, barbarian*, barbaric*, barbarous*, blunt,

boorish, brusque, brutish, cheeky,

churlish, coarse, crabbed, crude, curt,

discourteous, graceless, gross, gruff, ignorant,

impertinent, impolite, impudent,

inconsiderate, insolent, insulting, intrusive,

loutish, low, obscene, offhand, peremptory,

raw, scurrilous, short, surly, uncivil,

uncivilized, uncouth, uncultured*, uneducated,

ungracious, unmannerly, unpolished, unrefined,

vulgar...

----

Others:

Ridiculous, silly,

sour, spoiled, putrid, rancid,

raw, uncooked, smells like wet dog,

unproofed, full of weeds, untilled, had no beta reader, unsexy,

goofy, grimy, out of proportion, out of tune, out of balance,

not on the level, unfair, all hat and no cattle,

And just plain BAD.

ETA more: cracked leather, trims no trees, tarnished

*Please see comments at LJ concerning possible racist connotations of these terms.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Why that's just ....

LOVELY!

/runs and hides

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

Super! dharma_slut has list of praise words (http://dharma-slut.dreamwidth.org/69662.html) too!

[suibhne-geilt.livejournal.com]

If you want to really follow the rabbit down the hole, though, "Barbarian" is a racist term as well.

The ancient Greeks used the word to describe the Teutons to the north, because they thought their language was just a bunch of unintelligible "baar baar baar baar". It's pretty much the Classical world's equivalent of a white person characterizing Asian languages as Ching Chong (http://hotair.com/archives/2006/12/11/rosie-ching-chong-odonnell-with-subtitles/)...

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about barbarian. Thanks for the etymology!

Certainly there's racist usages of people calling other people uncultured in various ways.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Barbarian is fine in some cases, but not in other. I would not call a POC "barbarian" or "uncivilized" given that big chunks of the history of racism have been about declaring non-white peoples as....uncivilized and barbaric, and thus not fully human and in need of conquering.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

One that I took off her original list was "savage" for that reason-- in my own head I have racist associations with that word, and I just would not use it as an insult!

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

ha! yes, that's what i said, um, only i just said the not speaking Greek bit *g* ::points below::

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

i can't use barbarian...my inner voice just says "but that just means that someone doesn't speak Greek!"

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, ditto the racial connotations of barbaric.

[glitter-femme.livejournal.com]

Lots of these are also about class, and used to keep lower-class people in their place.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

That is a really good point.