A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us, written with humor and playfulness that challenges words and phrases and how we use them. “I get so jazzed about the future of feminism knowing that Amanda Montell’s brilliance is rising up and about to explode worldwide.”—Jill Soloway The word bitch conjures many images for many people, but is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean a female canine, bitch didn’t refer to gender at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word meaning genitalia. A perfectly innocuous word devolving into a female insult is the case for tons more terms, including hussy—which simply meant “housewife”—or slut, which meant “untidy” and was also used to describe men. These words are just a few among history’s many English slurs hurled at women. Amanda Montell, feminist linguist and staff features editor at online beauty and health magazine Byrdie.com, deconstructs language—from insults and cursing to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women form gaining equality. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women use the word “like” as a filler? Or why certain gender neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or even how linguists have historically discussed women’s speech patterns? Wordslut is no stuffy academic study; Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound, demonstrated in chapters such as: Slutty Skanks and Nasty Dykes: A Comprehensive List of Gendered Insults How to Embarrass the Shit Out of People Who Try to Correct Your Grammar Fuck it: An Ode to Cursing While Female Cyclops, Panty Puppet, Bald Headed Bastard and 100+ Other Things to Call Your Genitalia Montell effortlessly moves between history and popular culture to explore these questions and more. Wordslut gets to the heart of our language, marvels at its elasticity, and sheds much-needed light into the biases that shadow women in our culture and our consciousness.
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Nonfiction books examining pop linguistics, cognitive biases, and cultish social behaviors have reshaped how modern readers understand the relationship between everyday language and human psychology. Amanda Montell is an author and linguist whose work dissects the hidden power dynamics of speech in books like Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. Her writing explores how subtle linguistic cues and shared vocabularies shape group identity, modern belief systems, and social influence across digital and offline spaces.
Born on February 16, 1992, in Baltimore, Maryland, Montell earned her degree from New York University before working as a beauty writer and editor. She later transitioned into pop linguistics and cultural commentary as a full-time author and media creator. Her prose and reporting have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar. In addition to writing books, she co-created and hosted the podcast Sounds Like A Cult and created Magical Overthinkers, shows that have garnered over 40 million downloads and earned accolades including a Webby Award and an iHeartRadio Podcast Award.
Montell blends sociolinguistic research, behavioral psychology, and personal anecdotes to analyze how language reflects and reinforces societal structures. Her work focuses on female-oriented speech patterns, language bias, high-demand group jargon, and common cognitive illusions that prompt irrational thinking in modern life. By combining academic research with accessible cultural critique, she helps readers identify the psychological mechanisms and subtle speech choices that influence everyday human behavior.
