you...(BLANK)!

It can be fascinating to deconstruct one's self-image...figure out why a disproportionate amount of your identity is invested in your nose, penis, or boobs...your wardrobe, job, romantic status...children, alma mater, skin color...
But who ever stops to analyze our society's self-image? What we can learn about ALL of us, through the ways our language reveals our priorities? I can think of no better way than to deconstruct the words used when people label each other by a single body part. Is there anything we humans identify with more than our bodies? It's natural that our language would reflect this obsession. So any body part which we employ to identify an entire person, must be a powerful word indeed. How then do we feel about those parts? Which parts merit such consideration, and which are ignored? Which fleshy metaphors reflect positive attitudes, and which are negative?
There are a number of parts that almost make the cut. But we'll omit the likes of gutless, eagle-eye, big mouth, knock-kneed, or showing spleen, as adjectives, compound nouns, and verb phrases lack the emotional punch that comes with a direct person-to-part, noun-to-noun equivalence.
Here are parts you've never heard anybody called - toe, foot, leg, navel, stomach, womb, chest, shoulder, arm, hand, finger, neck, ear, nose, face, and head. What does it reveal about us that nobody gets called a head, hand, or face? More conspicuously, what of heart and brain? The closest to the former are "bleeding heart" and "sweetheart" - but one of those is negative, and the other weak and diluted. Does our society have a lurking prejudice against emotion? For the brain, we have "brainless" or "brainiac", which carry some emotional punch...but does the absence of "brain" as a direct apellative reveal a prejudice against intelligence?
All of which leaves us with...THE BIG SIX! Dick, asshole, cunt, pussy, twat, and boob.
DICK
Arguably the single greatest pejorative in the english language. How revealing that we should load all that weight upon the male genitals. But ought not the penis be a place of happy associations? The center of the male orgasm, and a "tool" which many women would choose even over the most deluxe, tricked-out swiss army knife? To say nothing of being the wellspring of babies, our most precious resource? On the negative side is only "penis as wellspring of pee". But even with that in the mix, how is it possible that "dick" became anything other than loving and complimentary? For one simple reason - dicks are attached to men. In the zeitgeist, the history of dick IS the history of man. Yes, men created this language we speak, and yes, homo sapiens males are the most self-aggrandizing egomaniacs in the history of the world...but this is one case where truth escaped, perhaps because no amount of denial could keep subconscious self-loathing this big from slipping out. Or maybe it's just part of the male ego trip - making your most beloved appendage the very symbol of your worst behavior...and laughing, because there's no animal below or god above to punish you. "Dick" is the symbol of the way men treat each other - with avarice and aggression. And it's the symbol of the way men treat women - can you say "rape-prevalent society"?
ASSHOLE
An unqualified pejorative. "Ass" is also used in this context, but is alternately an abbreviation for "jackass" (which is also uncomplimentary, but for different reasons). Asshole taps into the scatalogical nature of our society - our fascination with poop and farts. In terms of forthrightness without undue psychological baggage, asshole is as pure and healthy as any pejorative gets. To equate someone with the hole whence excrement emanates? Why, it's almost poetic.
CUNT, PUSSY, TWAT
A pejorative so great they named it three times! With the gleaming wondrousness that is the vagina, how could any labia-labelling be anything other than the greatest compliment conceivable (ahem)? How, indeed. Examine the multitudinous contexts:
Cunt
The most harsh and demeaning iteration, "cunt" is generally where one goes when attempts at civilized discourse are done. Cunt - the conversation ender! A term directed at women, employable by either gender, but used mostly by men (because their use extends to idle talk, whereas women only use it when they're, shall we say, upset).
Pussy
Perhaps the most demeaning word for one man to call another, it indicates cowardice, weakness, or victimhood (in other words, stereotypical images of "femininity"). A pejorative that could only arise in a society which fears and hates women. Used almost exclusively by men against men, and often playfully so - which makes the anti-female underpinnings all the more insidious. Many males use this word their entire lives (and teach it to younger males) without ever being consciously aware of why it's so profoundly denigrating.
Twat
No smiling, now. A female genitalia pejorative with shades of playfulness, it is directed only at women, by either gender. It's demeaning, and often accompanied by the word "dumb". When men use it instead of "cunt", it means they haven't necessarily given up hope of having sex with said woman. When women use it, they're often avoiding the outright fisticuffs to which "cunt" can lead. Among women, a higher playfulness factor pertains.
BOOB
Yes, another pejorative (sigh). How did boobs (breasts) become associated with foolish stupidity? That which gives us sustenance when we enter this world? That which nature has designed to be a source of endless fascination and fun? How did this become a BAD word?? There can only be one explanation - we are a society which denigrates all things female. It stuns me when some people (females included - a few young ones, too) try to insist that women have achieved equality. But language deconstruction, unlike a person, is not susceptible to self-delusion. At the most basic levels of our societal self-image, in how we think of each other on the subconscious level, women remain firmly in the dirt. A less prevalent variation of boob is "tit"...but that's a british thing, so we'll let them figure it out.
THE BIG PICTURE
Is it coming into focus? It seems we almost never equate a whole person with a single body part except when we seek to disparage them. What does it say about us that disparaging one another is so central to our societal self-image? It says we don't like ourselves a whole lot. But what else would you expect from a species that dreamed up hell, original sin, and beer bongs? And what does it say about us that disparaging each other is clearly much more important than elevating one another?
It says that you'd better watch your ass.
And the other parts, too.