For a moment I thought it odd that Sam Leith should use the word ballsy of Lillian Hellman in reviewing her biography here a couple of weeks ago. Then I thought, hang on, one never hears the word used of men. Sarah Crompton, writing in the Telegraph recently, noticed something similar, listing other words used only about women: feisty, bubbly, bolshie, hysterical, emotional, irrational and bitchy.
In the same paper Ed Cumming added another woman-only adjective in his description of a character in Prisoners’ Wives: ‘blowsy, ballsy Francesca’. Another paper previewed an episode of Silk in which ‘ballsy new QC Martha (Maxine Peake)’ appeared. So it goes on.
Earlier this year, India Knight hinted in the Sunday Times that overt ballsiness had its limit. Commenting on Sally Bercow’s performance on Celebrity Big Brother, she remarked: ‘If you have to say, “I’m feisty! I’m ballsy! I am my own woman!” all the time, chances are that goal is some way off.’
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