From 'smash' to 'crack': Is Gen Z's sexual slang normalising violence?

The ever-evolving internet has always had multiple words assigned to talking about sexual intimacy. Lately, words like pounding, smashing, hitting, cracking, and banging have taken a rather strange turn, making them sound more violent than intimate.

Every generation has had its own set of vocabulary to talk about sex to make something awkward easier to say. However, words travel online faster to reach larger audiences, and, unlike the slang of previous generations, they always remain one Google search away. These recent terms now raise an uncomfortable question: when language relating to sexual intimacy borrows from the language of violence, does it normalise the latter?

Author and blogger Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan points out that every generation has its own sexual slang. The only difference is that the Gen Z language is much more well-documented. “The difference with Gen Z is that they are constantly on the internet. When we were that age, there was no social media and barely any texting. Gen Z has grown up being recorded almost from the moment they are born. No part of them remains mysterious,” she tells THE WEEK.

A thorough documentation of language could mean that the evolution of slang could be watched as it forms. The most recent example would be the term, “cracked”. It has been used in gaming for a long time to mean that someone is exceptionally skilled, but in some online spaces, it has gained the meaning of having sex. Words like smashing, banging, and hitting can be placed on a similar level where the language is associated with force or impact.

“Words like ‘pounding’ and ‘banging’ existed in previous generations too,” Meenakshi says. “Violent language around sex has been around through the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. What is interesting about Gen Z is that this is a generation that is much more open about consent and different forms of sexuality, so I would have expected the language around sex to have evolved as well.”

She says that pornography could have played a major role in the persistence of such vocabulary.

There has been a longstanding connection between sexual bravado and masculinity. “There has always been a certain masculine performance in the way men talk about sex; the idea of ‘I’m going to pound her’ or ‘I’m going to bang her’ becomes a way of projecting sexual bravado. It turns sex into a demonstration of masculinity,” Meenakshi says.

Nandhini D., an assistant professor of English in Stella Maris College, Chennai, agrees. “I think these words often encourage a sense of masculinity in men when they use these words, like banging versus love-making,” says Nandhini, who has a Master’s degree in linguistics. “Both describe sexual intercourse, but one carries a distinctly more aggressive register. It adds a sense of achievement as if they have won something that is catering to their primal needs.”

The problem is not that someone using “crack” or “bang” is automatically endorsing sexual violence. Language has the potential to influence the cultural frameworks within which people understand sex, desire, gender and power. “The more often a term is used, the more normalised it becomes,” Nandhini says.

Nandhini is particularly concerned about what happens when this vocabulary reaches children. She recalls seeing children imitate vulgar gestures without understanding their meaning. Social media can expose children to sexual language before they have the context to understand it, she says. “They end up being victims because these words aren't regulated or filtered for the content children consume.”

The concern extends beyond slang and into popular culture. Nandhini points to the way jokes and expressions can gradually become normalised when left unchallenged. “We have seen enough instances where violence does not always stay in a specific place. For example, locker room jokes eventually become rape jokes, and when left unmonitored, it could lead to sexual violence.”

Actor and writer Santhy Balachandran sees the problem partly as a consequence of the vocabulary available to young Indians in the first place. “In the Indian context, we lack a sex-positive colloquial vocabulary for expressing desire,” she tells THE WEEK. Children often encounter sexual language in negative context, with shame attached to sexuality. That may explain why English can sometimes feel more comfortable when expressing romance and desire, she says.

This becomes particularly relevant in cinema, where slang is often used to establish a character's age, personality and world view. Santhy does not believe filmmakers need to simply eliminate offensive language. Instead, context matters. A regressive character using misogynistic slang can reveal something about his world view; the same term coming from a heroic character can land very differently. “It’s important to be mindful of the history behind each term,” she says.

A word can begin as a meme, get picked up by influencers and become part of everyday vocabulary. Unlike an awkward conversation between friends, the joke can be reproduced thousands of times, stripped of the context in which it originated.

It’s not as if Gen Z has suddenly invented violent ways of talking about sex. It is that the internet has made these expressions louder, more visible and easier to normalise. And therein lies the problem.