海角大神

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is one feisty woman, according to the news media. Vox.com reported that she 鈥渓ooked feisty鈥� in the 2020 Nevada Democratic debate, and The Washington Post in 2016 referred to her and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president at the time, as 鈥渇eisty grandmothers.鈥澛�

At first glance, feisty seems like a compliment. Merriam-Webster defines it as 鈥渉aving or showing a lively aggressiveness: spunky,鈥� while Oxford Dictionaries chooses 鈥渓ively, determined, and courageous.鈥澛�

Feisty, along with spunky and plucky, is an adjective that subtly undermines even while it ostensibly praises. As Oxford Dictionaries points out, feisty is typically used for people 鈥渨ho [are] relatively small or weak,鈥� who might not be expected to display a lot of energy or courage. As activists and politicians from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Senator Warren could attest, this is a label often pasted onto women.

Author Katha Pollitt argues that feisty is 鈥渢he one-word version of 鈥榊ou鈥檙e so cute when you鈥檙e mad,鈥欌�� and the word鈥檚 etymology suggests how this connotation arose. It comes from feist, a breed of small hunting dog popular in the Southern United States. These animals spend a lot of time barking, yapping, and wiggling 鈥� cute and funny, but not serious and impressive. Men are rarely considered feisty, unless they are older. Bernie Sanders often gets called feisty too, as if the media is surprised that he cares passionately and speaks forcefully in his late 70s.聽

The definition of spunky is 鈥渟pirited,鈥� or 鈥渃ourageous and determined,鈥� from the Scottish spunk, 鈥渟park of fire.鈥� But it too has been cutified. If grandmothers are the archetypal feisty people, then small young women, such as gymnast Simone Biles, are considered spunky.

Plucky is also reserved for 鈥渓ittle鈥� things that have courage beyond what might be expected of them. It鈥檚 often applied to women, as with the trope of the 鈥減lucky heroine鈥� who solves a mystery, finds a treasure, or succeeds at a job, despite being out of her depth. Britain, though, prides itself on being 鈥渁 plucky nation,鈥� and in the 19th century, young lads were plucky too, so the term doesn鈥檛 have the same connotation as the others.

Some newspapers have acknowledged that these words can be subtly sexist, as well as ageist. The Guardian in Britain banned feisty when used to describe women, while the Women鈥檚 Media Center encourages journalists not to use 鈥済endered terms such as 鈥榝eisty,鈥� 鈥榮pirited,鈥� 鈥榦pinionated鈥� UNLESS your outlet would use them on a male candidate.鈥� What to say instead? Jane Curtis, the centenarian activist recently profiled in 海角大神, calls herself and other women in her life 鈥渢ough.鈥� That seems about right.