One of my regular readers challenged me recently after reading my post, All in a Huff over Vocabulary Reserved for Women. She asked me to come up with alternate vocabulary—words that weren’t disparaging or downright insulting. I think that’s an excellent idea. Challenge accepted!
For example: How about passionate instead of easy, asking for it, slutty, tease, tart, or loose?
Caring or quite likely disagreeing with you would be preferable to hysterical, hormonal, emotional, neurotic, moody, touchy, irrational, sensitive, fretting, whiny or illogical.
Disinterested in you is probably much more accurate than frigid or prude. (And deep down you probably know that already.)
Annoyed, frustrated, righteously indignant, or just mean, depending on the circumstances, would be better than huffy, bitchy, irritable, brassy, shrill, catty, headstrong, cat fight, intense, ball buster, shrew, high strung, nag, fishwife, bossy, nasty, abrasive, or pushy.
Perhaps you might consider distracted, busy or overwhelmed instead of flaky, airhead, or ditsy.
Here’s a thought: How about not commenting on age or physical appearance at all, rather than using the terms jail bait, blonde, brunette, plus sized, or little?
How about earnest or sincere instead of breathless or adoring?
Have you ever thought that perhaps someone described as too ambitious, high maintenance, or a diva is actually decisive, confident and knows what she wants?
In addition, gossipy could be communicative, mousey could be noncommunicative or undecided, and bubbly could be enthusiastic.
Gold diggers, in my experience, are either grossly misunderstood or selfish con artists.
And if you think all of the above is not bad for a girl, how about just saying not bad?
Food for thought, I hope. Happy Thanksgiving.

How about outspoken and confident rather than “nasty”
I like that! Although I must admit I’ve been making nasty my own ever since the debates. 🙂