would you call someone a cunt to their face

[hobnobsaremyfavourite]

That's it really. Some posters seem happy to bandy around the term quite happily on here but I suspect they are all talk with very little trousers IYSWIM. There are others who I am very certain could call a fanny a vagina.
So AIBU in thinking people are vey happy to type the word but out there in the real world face to face with another human being they wouldn't have the front/arrogance/nastiness to do it?

I have only ever used this word during private conversations with my nearest and dearest about public figures who really are. Or during a very extreme argument, maybe once or twice.

The first person to every call me one was my mother, because i'd cooked a meal my father had quite enjoyed.

The last time someone called me one, (a total stranger whom i'd asked to clean up their dog's mess so my toddler didn't step in it), my parents (we'd been out for a family stroll with my kids) stood there and did nothing. And then told me off for 'interfereing' in the first place.

Hence it's not my favourite word, and my parents are not my favourite people.

I am such a coward in RL that I very rarely say anything offensive to people's faces. I cut them dead instead, I know that's a rubbish way of dealing with conflict. I do swear (a lot) but it takes a lot for me to direct it at a person.

Note: To my colleague - not your best move to attempt to out me yesterday. I really liked my nickname on here, and I am not happy that I've had to change it. I think I managed to put you off the scent but please accept that I do, on this occasion, think you are a quente.

I am reliably informed by my friend that the word is not uncommon in it's usage in north west wales.
I suppose at least most posters who use it on here are willing to admit they would equally use it in RL which I think is fair enough.

I don't swear a lot. My parents don't swear so it just wasn't part of my vocabulary growing up. No big deal really.

For me most swear words are simply technically incorrect. If someone does something I don't agree with, it doesn't mean they have MH issues, nor are they a religious deity, nor are they a piece of my anatomy and they are also not a form of human or animal waste.

I will admit to swearing when in the UK and Ireland simply for credibility. Don't want to be thought of as posh or judgey.

thats it tulip when in rome

Such a horrid word!! Theres a bloke in our office who chucks that word around alot. What a plank

spook - was repeatedly asked why I don't swear while working in Dublin, and as I don't have a reason, I then just started randomly throwing "bollocks" into conversation, and that was sufficient to make me 'normal'.

see tulip I go the other way and probably would have went all ultra posh and started talking like the Queen (which would have sounded strange coming from someone with a sort of Glaswegian accent).

No way. It's pretty much the worst thing you can call someone IMO.

I don't swear a lot. My parents don't swear so it just wasn't part of my vocabulary growing up. No big deal really.

this ^^

but i guess if its ok to swear cos its just a word, albeit designed to be offensive - then its ok to call people other names also designed to be offensive i.e. racist/sexist/disablist whatever, cos they are just words

So from what some of you say, there are regional variations as well?

Seems that it's more used in everyday conversation in Scotland (FanyFifer) and Ireland (tulipgrower, mayorquimby).

As for casual use in everyday conversation mayorquimby I think you will find that quite a few people in the UK would take extreme offense at such behaviour as you admit: "...It's odd I swear at people a lot but i wouldn't class any of it as hurling abuse despite the fact that most of it is abusive and intended to be somewhat abusive..."

When the heavy garden table fell on my feet I'm afraid the first thing that burst out of my pain begrimaced mouth was meeeeeeeeeeep aarrggh aaargggh cunting arsebiscuit

Because it was agonising and well, a shock as you don't generally expect a bloody great table to go THWUMP on your feet when you're hanging the washing out. I also swored when I shoved my head into a box and yelled "HERE MOUSY MOUSY" and a mouse did indeed run at my face.

I defy anyone , in those circumstances, to say "Oh dear, a table has just crushed both my feet" or "Oh dear, a small rodent has just landed on my face".

If anyone can truly say that you wouldn't have got sweary I truly salute you. But I myself am totally CRAP when heavy things / mousy things land on me. Of course, I laugh about it now...

No. But then I've not called anyone on here a cunt either.

I don't agree it's used in everyday conversation in Scotland across the board - my friends and family never casually swore a lot and I grew up in a roughish area but many of my neighbours and neighbourhood kids did. They thought you were posh if you didn't swear and didn't shag all the boys in the street and stayed on at school past 4th year.

Racist, sexist, disabilist language is designed to humiliate and diminish the group about which it is used.

That is very different from telling someone to fuck off which offends propriety rather than a minority. We all have cunts or pricks.

i always thought men used 'cunt' to humiliate and put a woman in her place though or also humiliate the man she was with. I understand it has evolved now but that's how it was when i was growing up and still has some of those connotations for me so I don't really use it.

I suspect you are right begony. I think I assumed the same.
And I never used it throughout my 20s or 30s .

But then I was persuaded by the reclaiming arguments and I think swearing is more equal oppertunity. Everyone can be a prick now if they try

The difference between swearing at someone and racist/disablist terms is quite simple. By calling someone a p@ki you are taking one thing about them, often external and unchangable and using it to be cruel.

Its true that most cunts deserve our sympathy, but they can change that behaviour. I find it odd that people don't see the difference. And re the class/education thing. Neither of my parents worked when I was growing up, but they were v strict and didn't swear at all

Pagwatch

That depends on your opinion of what is offensive or not, from the many views on here there is little in the way of agreement.

lissielou - i feel the same in a way about 'cunt'. Men took the one thing about women we couldn't change and used it against us in the same way people use 'Paki' IMO anyway.

Of course. But my point was not about whether language is offensive or not but whether it is designed to humiliate a minority or to just be generally rude.

I have only ever used it in a jokey way to a close friend or my DH. I have and don't think I ever would use it in an argument but then I don't swear or call people names when we disagree anyway.

But having a cunt is not something I wish to change. It does not diminish me. It is not change worthy. It does not diminish me in the minds of an average person.

Btw I am not dismissing anyone elses viewpoint. We all have our own perspective. I am just interested in how this so different to different people...

No, I wouldn't.

I love to swear, swearing is fantastic.

But for me calling someone a cunt in a row/disagreement is too aggressive a move, when I usually seek to wind stuff down.

If it was a jokey conversation I would though.