The Pussy Paradox. Exploring the Reappropriation(s) of “Pussy” with the Corpus of Contemporary American English

The preliminary study presented in this article uses the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to study how the different meanings of the word “pussy” interrelate. The study serves two purposes: the first one is to gain insight into the role played by that polysemy in the reappropriation process of “pussy” as a slur; the second one is to test the relevance of the COCA when it comes to studying slurs and their reappropriation. The COCA provides abundant interactional data that allows for a rather precise semantic analysis of “pussy”, highlighting how “kitten”, “vagina / vulva” and “coward” overlap in its meaning, as well as illustrating the typical situation in which it is used as a slur (specifically regarding the genders of the speaker and their target). While this information provides helpful leads on the reappropriation process of “pussy”, actual instances of reappropriation remain quite scarce in the COCA —thus resorting to other sources is necessary. Despite these limitations, the results of the study seem to corroborate the existence of a “pussy paradox”: its multilayered meaning makes for a particularly violent insult, but it also increases its likelihood of being reappropriated by the people it targets.