--- title: Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally description: From 'trophy wife' to 'arm candy,' 'words turn the female body into an object' canonical: https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/ author: IDEAS Desk article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-23T21:47:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:18:17.425Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally og:description: From 'trophy wife' to 'arm candy,' 'words turn the female body into an object' og:url: https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b13977be59249c/69887ebbf887dcc76be94be1/anna-friemoth-butterface.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Anna Friemoth, "Butterface", 2015, archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 34 inches og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally twitter:description: From 'trophy wife' to 'arm candy,' 'words turn the female body into an object' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b13977be59249c/69887ebbf887dcc76be94be1/anna-friemoth-butterface.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Feb 23, 2016 9:47 PM UTC  Anna Friemoth, "Butterface", 2015, archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 34 inches Anna Friemoth, "Butterface", 2015, archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 34 inchesCourtesy of Gallery 151 and Anna Friemoth by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Feb 23, 2016 9:47 PM UTC “She’s a butterface” is a saying meant to convey that everything about a woman is good… but her face. Photographer Anna Friemoth’s literal lens reveals the phrase as the slur that it is. That’s the thought experiment behind Friemoth’s new collection, “[Words for Women](http://www.annafriemoth.com/#!/index/G0000eWmRUCWbwbM).” As Slate [highlights](http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2016/02/23/anna%5Ffriemoth%5Fliterally%5Finterprets%5Fthe%5Fwords%5Fused%5Fto%5Fcriticize%5Fwomen%5Fin.html), Friemoth takes common phrases associated with women and reimagines them as colorful, literal portraits. “Trophy wife” becomes a stoic woman covered in shiny silver; “wallflower” becomes a woman in a red dress mounted on a wall; “arm candy” becomes a woman covered up in a polka-dot wrapper. “I started thinking about labels people use for women and the idea for the photos came from there,” Friemoth tells TIME via e-mail. “Arm candy, sugar tits, butterface—people throw these words around all the time. But when you break them down and take them literally, these words turn the female body into an object of consumption.” “Words for Women” is [on display at Gallery 151](http://www.gallery151.com/portfolio/anna-friemoth-words-for-women/) in New York City until Mar. 18\. The exhibit is made possible by Mike Namer and Alfa Development and organized by Anna Gritsevich of Wallplay. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/"},"headline":"Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally","datePublished":"2016-02-23T21:47:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:18:17.425Z","description":"From 'trophy wife' to 'arm candy,' 'words turn the female body into an object'","url":"https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/","keywords":["gender","women","Art","photography","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b13977be59249c/69887ebbf887dcc76be94be1/anna-friemoth-butterface.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"IDEAS Desk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b13977be59249c/69887ebbf887dcc76be94be1/anna-friemoth-butterface.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Anna Friemoth, \"Butterface\", 2015, archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 34 inches","caption":"Anna Friemoth, \"Butterface\", 2015, archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 34 inches","creditText":"Courtesy of Gallery 151 and Anna Friemoth","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/gender/","name":"gender"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4234250/words-for-women/","name":"Here's What a Rude Word For a Woman Looks Like—Literally"}}]}] ```