Author’s note.
A year ago I was witnessing a revolution unfold before my eyes in Egypt and now here I am writing about the word douchebag. The sudden turn to the mundane and seemingly trivial is an attempt to widen my portfolio and broaden my horizons as a writer and commentator.
I’ve come to hate the often-used word douchebag, even though I will readily admit that I am a vocabulary hypocrite in my weekly if not daily use of the word. The word, at least on the surface, epitomizes sophomoric insults in its brevity and crudeness. The vulgar slang’s rapid rise in popularity and usage symbolizes an overlooked representation of modern society and culture.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word’s inception as a slang term to 1967, by then the word had morphed from its mundane meaning into a derogatory term for an “unattractive coed.” Interestingly enough, considering modern parlance, the formal recognition of douchebag almost fifty years ago, seems to have been exclusively linked linked to the feminine, just as the device was and is. The spoken phrase remained as a strictly verbal insult until the 1980s when it inexplicably began to see a massive uptick in usage in English fiction. Although through my research I was unable to discern douchebag’s usage as an insult or as its ordinary nounal (yes this is actually a word, thanks Google!) usage, it is extremely hard to imagine that such a spike, from sparse occurrences to hundreds in just a few years, would be the result of an increase in discussions of feminine hygiene in fiction.
The word doesn’t make any appearances in newspapers or magazines until the early 1990s when it was used multiple times in Australian left leaning weekly newspapers in its modern incarnation as a slang slung at men. Douchebag’s popularity appears to originate from New Zealand and Australia as it makes numerous appearances in written sources down under before making its way to the western hemisphere. Douchebag’s first appearance in American popular media came in 1993 on the pilot for the television series NYPD Blue. 
The episode, and singular usage of the word, resulted in a firestorm of criticism from family protection groups. Douchebag’s first appearance in America media and the resulting backlash authenticate not only its universal crudeness but also its established prevalence in urban communities—or at least the representation of urban life in the minds’ of upper class TV writers.
The 90’s saw douchebag’s heyday as a crude and forbidden word in common or polite conversation. The word enjoyed steady usage as a cutting synonym for jerk in leftist newspapers and zines, rap songs, and modern fiction. In 2004 it made its first appearance in the curse word adverse The New Yorker but by then the word had become a common mildly offense word heard often in movies and pay television such HBO and Showtime. It’s this rapid transition from fringe insult to common usage that is the most interesting.
On the surface the evolution can be attributed to its original banal purpose and thus the word, in principle is easier to get by the television censors at standards and practices. As Dan Harmon, the creator and executive producer of television series Community describes, “As a writer, you’re always reaching for a more potent way to call somebody a jerk.” In douchebag’s ease of use and basic meaning lie another one of its hidden attributes; the word itself is highly malleable not only in its form but also its function. Douchebag, douche, d-bag all mean essentially the same thing but the variety of the word’s forms make it an attractive choice in a variety of situations. The flow and cadence of the word is easily changed to fit the flow of a conversation, an argument, or a carefree joke.
Douchebag’s pervasive acceptance as a throwaway synonym for brash jerk or dawdling idiot illustrates modern sentiments not only on masculinity but also women in general. The perversion of its original meaning, in and of itself is a degradation ofwomen. Its usage as a derogatory term for a man is a purposeful societal restructuring of the word and a form of cultural amnesia.
A quintessential "douchebag"
Calling someone a douchebag is not meant to paint a man as more effeminate or weak but rather describes a hyperbolic representation of male characteristics. Society has hijacked a word used in the taboo, the sacred, and the mundane process and existence of the vagina and feminine hygiene, thus in the process glossing over these very attributes.
It is ironic that douchebag’s prevalence as a slang term in modern parlance also comes at a time of the device’s decline in popularity for its original purpose. Gynecologists now recommend against the usage of a douchebags and Summer Eve’s (the Coca-Cola of douchebags) profits now come almost entirely from other feminine hygiene products. The device has become almost archaic in nature but its original use isn’t unknown, it in fact adds to its prevalence in adolescent circles, thus reinforcing the unknown, the taboo of the female body while simultaneously degrading it. The female body becomes the joke, with a douchebag’s traditional use becoming the brunt of the joke, just as the subject of the insult is.
As early as 2008 people have called for the end of the use of the word douchebag, not for the reasons herein but mainly because of the adolescent nature and omnipotent presence of the word in American media. The primary reason I hate the word is because its use in modern American art is lazy. The overwhelming popularity of the word is represented in the sophomoric, outrageously popular shows which center on the humor of sex. Shows like “Two and Half Men” and “Two Broke Girls” basically treat sex the same way a 14 year old boy does, obsessing over it while simultaneously degrading the act. I love a good sexual innuendo but modern popular comedies basic strip down the art of comedy to SEX is weird! Sex is everywhere! SEX is complicated! Sex is all those things but the systematic deconstruction of sex and feminine hygiene in the American media glosses over these intricacies in the same fashion the popular acceptance of the word douchebag does. I’m not calling for the end of the slang douchebag. I use it flippantly and with some degree frequency but then again I am a 14-year-old boy at heart. Looking at the juncture of American media and the English language I guess we all are.
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good exposé on douche-bag, Cory!
Good commentary, but what about the rest of English slurs? Cunt, pussy, dick, asshole, shithead etc all refer to private parts, but are they all as juvenile as douchebag? The latter seems less offensive and more amateur than the former words. Calling someone a ‘douchebag’ and someone a ‘cunt’ – well you’re basically in a different sport, not to mention league.
Also, Ronald McDonald.