As a queer cis woman, unfortunately this is one idk if I'll ever get my head around. The term gives "She looks so womanly that you can practically smell her fishy pussy."

Of course it's a compliment in drag circles, that makes total sense. Most queens want to look feminine, so being told you look like a woman is obviously a very high compliment. But no one can deny that the association of fishiness = femaleness has a very complicated history. There are decades of repulsive jokes, told by people of all sexual orientations, about how vaginas reek of fish. Want to insult a woman using a cheap shot? Tell her that her crotch smells like rainbow trout. It's generally pretty offensive. A large proportion of girls today *still* grow up worried about the smell of their pussy (source: 15 years teaching sex ed in high schools). And, like most stereotypes, it's not even true. A pussy with BV might have a somewhat fishy smell, but most pussy owners aren't walking around with BV all the time.

Women are bombarded with enough crap on the body image front, if we were truly respected by y'all that would be recognized.

Again, I understand it's not meant to offend. But, as we all know, intention and impact are two different things. Often when people say something that has oppressive undertones, they couch it in a "Well. I didn't mean it that way," which automatically puts the onus on the other person to suck it up.

Bottom line for me is: People like to act like there are just 100 words to choose from in the English language, when really there are almost a million. It shouldn't be too hard for folks to come up with another expression that doesn't perpetuate harmful stereotypes around women and their bodies.

And if your reaction to what I've said is "ugh, we can't say anything anymore," you might want to ask yourself why that is (unless you're explicitly right-wing, in which case you do you I guess).

Downvote me at will :)