The Merdeka Series : Vulgarity and Gender, A Racial analysis.

In about 5 days time, multicultural and plural Malaysia will celebrate her 49th birthday. In conjunction with that, in true muhibbah spirit I will be conducting a few inconclusive studies (or rather self analysis) on the Malaysian psyche.

In this first study, I will analyze gender perceptions through the use of 'top-of-the-mind' vulgarities among the many racial groups based on their own mother tongues. I will be comparing how different races use words that are associated with genatalia (male and female), verbs, and other nouns... then I will see how this relates to gender perception among different races.

As a benchmark, I will compare it to a neutral language that does not belong to any race in Malaysia; that's English, the very western and un-asian lingua franca of the world.


In English... vulgarities that are often used are as follows:

1) fuck - verb, slang for copulation
example:
- to express surprise, 'oh fuck!'
- to express anger, 'fuck you'
- as an adjective enhancer, 'this is so fucking absurd'

2) shit - noun, excrement
example:
- to express surprise, 'oh shit!'

3) dick - noun, male genitalia
- as an adjective, 'you are such a dick'

4) cunt - noun, female genitalia
- as an adjective, 'you stupid cunt'


In Cantonese, a language widely used by the Chinese people of Malaysia, the following expletives are commonly used:

1) tiu - noun, slang for copulation, equivelant of the English word 'fuck'
example:
- to express surprise, 'tiu!'
- to express anger, 'tiu!'
note: unlike 'fuck', 'tiu' cannot be used as an adjective enhancer. However, the next word can.

2) lhan - noun, male genitalia
- as an adjective enhancer, 'tit mah chan chou yeh hou LHAN chat* man'
- as an adjective, 'lei thei hui ker yeong, LHAN kum yuk shuen'
* the word LHAN is often paired with the word CHAT, though one can use LHAN by itself without problems.
note: by adding the modifier 'si' (which means shit), 'LAN SI' means arrogant.

3) hai - noun, female genitalia
- as an adjective, 'chuen tho HAI kam yeong ah'
- to express anger, 'ma* HAI!'
* MA (which means 'mother') must be coupled with HAI in order to express anger, otherwise, using "HAI' by itsef fails to make any sense at all.


In Bahasa Melayu, the lingua franca of Malaysia; and a language widely used by the Malay community of Malaysia, which makes more than half the country's population... the following vulgarities are popular:

1) puki - noun, female genitalia
- to express anger, 'PUKI la woi'
- as an adjective, 'PUKI betul la'
note: the word PUKI is often used with its modifier 'MAK', which means 'mother', forming the word 'PUKIMAK'

2) pantat - noun, female genitalia
- to express anger, 'PANTAT la woi'
- as an adjective, "PANTAT betul la'
note: the word 'PANTAT' is not a vulgarity in Indonesia... over there it simply means 'buttocks'.

3) bhuto - noun, female genitalia
- to express anger, 'BHUTO la woi'
- as an adjective, 'BHUTO betul la'


In Tamil, a language widely used by the Indian community in Malaysia... the following vulgarities are popular:

note: unfortunately, the Indian community are quite marginalised in Malaysia, therefore nobody really bothers to learn to swear in tamil. Though it can be observed that the Malays, Chinese, and Indians all swear in all 3 languages; English, Chinese, and Bahasa Melayu. That is one thing that makes us quite muhibbah and multi-cultural.
re-note: there probably are vulgarities in the Tamil language, unfortunately I don't know any. Therefore, this makes a truly Malaysian study, since they are always discounted anyway in such studies and surveys.


Conclusion:
It is observed that the English language has 1 vulgarity that is a verb, 1 that is a female genitalia, 1 that is a make genitalia, and 1 that is a noun. Gender wise, equality prevails as both sexes are credited for vulgarities named after their body parts equally. The same can be said about the Chinese (1 verb, 1 female genitalia, 1 male genitalia). However, it is observed that all vulgarities in Bahasa Melayu all refer to the female genitalia; it can be said that a certain degree of sexism can be observed from how they swear. It is quite strange that despite having a slew of vulgar slangs for the vagina, there seem to be none at all for the penis in Bahasa Melayu.

note: there probably are more vulgarity in the said languages, but this is only accounts 'top of mind' vulgarities. Listing down all existing vulgarities may render the this blog unsuitable for children.

re-note: you're probably thinking that this is a completely pointless study (and I will agree with you). But if the Merdeka Center can come up with pointless studies, I think it is my right as a Malaysian to do the same too.

re-re-note: this blog entry is inspired by Ben's Bitches', after having heard their song, 'Run Peter Run' like over a thousand times.

re-re-re-note: Happy Merdeka Day.