Fighting Words! is a critical exploration of all kinds of "bad language" and how that language shapes, reinforces, or subverts identity, ideology, and power.

Eric Louis Russell is Professor of French & Italian at the University of California at Davis, with affiliations in the Linguistics Department and the Program in Gender, Sexualities & Women's Studies. He is the author of Alpha Masculinity: Hegemony in Language and Discourse and The Discursive Ecology of Homophobia: Unraveling Anti-LGBTQ Speech on the European Far Right.

Prologue - On Never Looking Away

Chapter One - Rethinking Language: Foundations for Critique

Chapter Two - Languaging Transgression: "Grabbing Pussy" and "Locker Room Talk"

Chapter Three - Languaging Meaning: "Rolling Coal" and "Having Balls"

Chapter Four - Languaging Worldview: Ideology and Mythology

Chapter Five - Languaging Authority and Power: Karens in the Wild

Chapter Six - Languaging Consequence: Linguistic Performativity and Hate Speech

Chapter Seven - Languaging Cancellation: The Ecology of Discourse and Hegemony

Chapter Eight - Languaging Rebellion: When Pussy Grabs Back