Man-Made Trouble With Gender Gap

Rose Van Dyke wonders why the media used the word womanizer to describe John Tower’s alleged weakness in his ordeal before the Senate, and what might be the appropriate word for a woman in such circumstances.

Van Dyke notes that her interest is not political; she is merely curious about that word and its elusive opposite.

She notes also that, according to Webster, the word womanize means “to make effeminate,” and, she points out, “I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here.”

Indeed, that was not what the Senate and the media were talking about. In calling Tower a womanizer, they meant that he pursued women promiscuously. I must note also, however, that Webster’s second definition is “to be sexually promiscuous with women.”

But Van Dyke argues that the word seems rather mild, merely indicating a man who enjoys the company of women--a lot. According to the second definition, however, I would say that it was on the mark.

What troubles Van Dyke is that she can find no corresponding word for a woman who enjoys the company of men--a lot. “Manizer,” she reasonably points out, “doesn’t work.”

The word used in the media for women involved in sexual escapades with men, she observes, is usually bimbo . “The instant one hears that term it translates in the mind to slut, tart, hooker, nympho, strumpet, et cetera.”

She wonders why women have not complained about this. “Where all the liberated women are, I don’t know. Women who bristle or go completely bananas at girl, honey or even Miss and Mrs. are mute.”

She concludes: “Here goes what may become a long quest for such a descriptive and non-inflammatory word for the female of the species who is inclined to pursue those activities with men that Mr. Tower has allegedly pursued with women.”

Her point is certainly well taken. I know little of the sexual mores of Washington. It seems inevitable, however, that men of power would be easy marks for sexually attractive women of ambition, and that one would be called womanizers and the other bimbos, once their peccadillos got into the light and became fodder for the media.

Assuming, though, that the President might nominate a woman for some Cabinet post or the Supreme Court, and that her sexual life was alleged to be less than righteous, by what word would she be accused of the promiscuous pursuit of men?

The Thesaurus of Slang, by Esther Lewin and Albert E. Lewin, lists 94 synonyms for women, most of them unsavory, and including bimbo , as well as jellybean, tomato and sugar-wooga .

I find no words that would answer Van Dyke’s quest. Most of the words make the woman seem an object or a victim. Perhaps man-chaser would be closer to the mark than most. Can we imagine the media referring to a candidate for the Supreme Court as a man-chaser?

That is as close as I can come. However, it seems unlikely that a notorious man-chaser would ever be nominated for the Cabinet or the court. At the risk of arousing feminists by suggesting that men and women are different, I must say that women who chase men promiscuously usually do it as a career, and are not likely to have risen high enough in any other career to be considered Cabinet material.

If there is an exception to that, her story ought to make a great movie.

Meanwhile, it is curious to note that the word often used by the media in reference to Tower’s alleged drinking problem was boozer . Considering that there are probably more synonyms for drunk and drunkard than for any other word in the language, boozer seems to have been about as good a choice as any.

Tower’s dignity could easily have been more damaged than it was had they called him a souse, rumpot, sponge, soak, hooch hound, ginhound or barfly.

Whether the Senate’s rejection of Tower’s nomination was a result of wisdom or political prejudice I don’t know, but in any case, that gentleman can now withdraw to his private pursuits, whatever they are, without further harassment by the media and his former colleagues.

By the way, if it ever comes up, the word for a woman boozer is lush .