Can we ban the 'c' word?

I'd rather have a quote button than a swear filter if we're putting in requests. Or an edit button.

You can't police people's language on a largely unmoderated forum. It just wouldnt work.

Vagina - the etymology of which is ‘sword sheath’ is much, much more offensive to me as a feminist

I agree.

"However, I find this an insult in itself. Why is being compared to female body parts considered a gross insult? It shouldn't be at all. Mumsnet, as one of the UKs female-focused websites, should take a stand on this word, i think"

You are right OP, and it already does. It shouldn't be any different an insult than any other body-part expletive, and so to normalise it, MNers use it just as often as they wouid any other.

I support that stand.

No...let’s not. I think it’s ok. I also like ‘fanny’ as a milder more affectionate insult. I don’t care that it refers to female genitalia. I also use dick, prick, bellend and nob as insults so it’s fair.

@KlutzyDraconequus it's a term of endearment/affection where I'm from as is fanny/tit/twat usually preceded by the word daft when someone has been a bit of a daft cunt.

I'd never heard it be used as an offensive insult until I joined Mumsnet

I used to hate it but now I love it CUNT ! There's something empowering about it.

When I was growing up I knocked about with a lad from Ireland. His family moved over here in the early 80s

I've never heard anyone use the word cunt quite so liberally as his 70year old grandmother. Being greeted with,
"Hey get over here ya little cunt ya"
And being hugged like a bit constrictor and the force fed stew. She used it like a term of affection.

Forever more the word Cunt to my ears will have an Irish accent.

I agree with literally everyone on this and the other post, apart from the OP. I dont much like the word, or the way some men use it to describe women, but plenty do. For example, I know some young lesbians who use it to greet each other and say "allright, cunt" to their mates. They say they are reclaiming the word for women and, whilst I am too old to ever be able to use it so casually, I quite like that idea.

Also - No banning/censorship of women or the names for their genitalia.

(Unless we are going to also ban prick, hubby, little man, stay at home mummy, nom nom and little princess, I'd throw it under the bus for that)

CF - cheekyfucker. I always read it as CuntyFuck.

I really must get up now.

Or writing ‘cnut’ instead.

Shit or get off the pot.

Can we ban asterisks typed in words - like ‘c**t’

It’s the most stupid thing ever because it’s just cunt. Every adult reading c**t reads cunt.
The idea that by not striking the u and the n keys you somehow protect your finger from profanity is ludicrous

Referring to another mother as ‘Mummy’ or ‘mummies’. That can go.

There are lots of words I'd like to ban - 'hubby' being one - but I don't think anyone has the right to censor words.

It's a word. You have every right to be offended by it, but no right to expect MNHQ to forbid anyone from using it.

ChardonnaysPrettySister . I agree!

I don’t get why a feminist thinks they can police women’s speech.

I smell bullshit.

I would definitely support a ban on Christmas, not to be used until December.

No banning of words. That's not a route I want to go further down. Don't use it if you don't like it.

But, but, the etymology for this word goes back, like, 600 years! Chaucer used an early version of it (queynte) in the Miller's Tale, without rancour or disdain.

I don't ever personally use it, and I think it's dreadful that it's used as the 'worst thing you can call somebody', but surely the answer is to reclaim it, á la Eve Ensler, not to perpetuate its weaponisation.

Banning it on here would only serve to accept - albeit indirectly- the misogynist principle that a woman's sexual parts are the worst thing in the world.

....and I thought the word was going to ‘Christmas’....

Now there's a campaign I could get behind!

I too hate the word ‘bitch’. If anyone thought it was appropriate Tom restrict our language as women and feminists on a predominantly female forum, I’d say this word can go.

Why, OP, do you feel you have the right to restrict us in this way? Are you going to come back?

......and I thought the word was going to ‘Christmas’......

I have a book called cunt. It discusses all the reasons why we should use the word cunt.

Mnhq - I would like to suggest that we ban all posters who don’t use the word cunt.

Bet you wouldn't want to be my friend, Op

Germaine Greer would disagree:

I love the idea that this word is still so sacred that you can use it like a torpedo: you can hole people below the water line; you can make strong men go pale....It is a word of immense power

No I don't think MN should police everyone's language because you don't like the word. I imagine the moderators are already pretty busy.

MN uses the strapline 'the one with the swearing'

If you want a site that does not permit swearing, or which limits it, then there are simply oodles out there. No need to change this one.

And no reason to think that one body-part swearword is worse than others. (But even if you have idiosyncratic reasons which means it is different to you, presumably you also know that not everyone shares those views, and that you're on a bit of a hiding to nowhere to come onto a site which explicitly expresses a difference stance and expect its thousands of users to change)