Being called a male chauvinist pig does not really offend the male; on the contrary it adds to his notions of masculinity, his machismo.
During my days in Bombay, an incident beneath my balcony made me aware of yet another wrong women have suffered at the hands of men over the ages. Brawls are so frequent an occurrence in my locality that I seldom bother to get up to see what is going on. But when it involves a man and a woman I even go down on the street to prevent the man from getting too rough with the woman. Consequently, when I heard male and female voices rise to a quarrelsome pitch I came out. There was this fellow about six foot tall and as villainous looking as any dakoo in an Indian film. And facing him a petite, pigtailed lass in sa1war-kameez sporting a sling-bag in the manner of ladies who frequent our footpaths after sundown. She was getting the better of the argument. The man driven to desperation replied with an obscene gesture with his hand. The woman rewarded him with a resounding slap across his face and a full-blooded oath: ‘Sa1a! Haramzada!’ Now, I said to myself, this dakoo will make mince meat of this maiden. Not at all. The maiden followed up her opening jab with flail of fists: left, right, under the chin, ending with a vicious kick in the fellow’s genitals which made him double up with pain. Then she delivered a coup de grace by a double-handed karate chop on the neck which sent him sprawling on the cobblestones. It was a heart-warming performance. But what bothered me was the use of masculine abuse which accompanied each blow: she swore to rape his mother, sister and daughter. Despite the prowess with her hands, the lady like others of her sex, did not possess the wherewithal to execute those threats. Why couldn’t she have sworn to molest his father, brother or son?
Being called a male chauvinist pig does not really offend the male; on the contrary it adds to his notions of masculinity, his machismo. And although another male expressing libidinous intent towards his female relatives can incense a man, it does not when the same is expressed by a woman. It is time women libbers coined their own phraseology of abuse for men.