To hate the use of the word cunt on mns

[lesley33]

I have kind of get used to it over the months I have been on here. But I still really don't like the use of this word. It is a swear word for female genitals and I guess I think it is a fairly misogynistic insult to use. And it does surprise me that posters who in other ways seem very liberal use language that I see as misogynistic and disrespectful towards women.
So AIBU to think this?

I don't think it's a reclamation, I think its use has changed.

In much the same way, 'bastard' was once the worst word you could call somebody; and nobody even then meant that the person's parents weren't married.

Language changes over time.

i love the word

though i do not use it all the time, may refrain from using aroudn my great aunty who is coming round for lunch as she is probably not aware that it has been reclaimed

maybe i shall lend her a copy of CUNT: A Declaration of Independence its a great read :o

YANBU to hate it, last time i saw we were allowed to hate what we like, are you going to do an AIBU about everything you hate though, that would be U.

That was unnecessary- abatinbunkfive. Join the debate or don't join it. Don't snipe.

Do you really think it's changed, tethersend? I don't think it has when men use it, frankly. And I do worry that women using it in a joyful, declamatory way gives men permission to use it in a darker, misogynist way.

sniggers at, 'The last time I saw'

"The mild British insult of 'berk' is actually cockney rhyming slang for 'cunt', as in 'Berkshire Hunt'.

"And of course, 'google', in old Anglo Saxon in fact means 'cunt', according to research by Dr Samuel Johnson."

From this entertaining & informative literary article :)

Seeker this is AIBU i answered it, i'm not sniping, if the op wanted a debate she could have said that and posted elsewhere. Had this been posted elsewhere i wouldn't have given the answer i did.

I recognise ABatInBunkFive's efforts at investigating alternative P's .O.V .

I appreciate it :)

It's the last taboo in swearing and it's great it's been defused. The word exists and is available to be used. Given that it can be used, it's better that it isn't entirely owned by those who want it to possess only negative and insulting connotations. You can't stop people from using the word, but you can subvert it's power and challenge the assumptions that lie behind it's use as an insult by giving it other connotations.

To give a simple example: -

There is a beautiful and courageous boy, now aged 13, who was at primary school with my kids. He's just himself and doesn't care whether other people like him or not. Nor should he care because he's really lovely. The worst insult at primary school was to call someone 'gay', which he used to be called a great deal. By the time he was in year 5 he figured out he probably was gay. Whenever a child called him gay, he'd reply, "Yes, I am gay. What of it?" By doing this, he completely destroyed the power of the word to be used as an insult. The children using it in this way were completely deflated and had nowhere to go. They thought they possessed something powerful which they could use to wound him. He showed them that, in fact, they didn't.

Angela Carter made her own beautiful contribution to challenging the use of the word in one way by showing she wasn't afraid of it and using it in another. At a time when few dared to utter it, she wrote, "her cunt a split fig below the great globes of her buttocks." If you've read this and someone calls you a 'cunt' you start to feel pretty good about yourself!

I hate the word and really struggle to see why it (or indeed any other) swear word needs to be used on a page such as this. I don't deny that I swear at times, normally in sheer frustration, but it really doesn't add to a debate and is far too much trouble to type extra words.

Just be wary. I'm not saying this is the case, but it is possible that we are letting men off the misogynist hook by joining them.

"The mild British insult of 'berk' is actually cockney rhyming slang for 'cunt', as in 'Berkshire Hunt'.

If this is true, then why isn't it pronounced 'bark'? Hmmm.

I use the word cunt quite alot actually. My very sweary DH picks me up on it because it sounds so agressive but it's a very satisfying word to use.

I agree with diotima, when you avoid a word because others use it maliciously, you're agreeing with the others that the word has evil powers (as it were; that's why swearing's called cursing). When you 'reclaim' it you rob the others of a weapon.

I've given up arguing this in certain, more serious, sections of MN though. All I dare say is that feminism's a load of ... apples!

See?

One of my favourite sweary exclamations is cunty-ballbag.

Nice and equal.

garlicbutter I agree with you agreeing with me

Basically, if people are using cunt in order to convey a nasty and insulting notion, you either try to ban its use or you enter into the discussion and put forward an alternative point of view. Some feminists favour the former, some the latter. I hate every form of censorship of ideas so I'm with Angela Carter!

If someone has posted that her partner has just knocked 7 shades of shite out of her its the best word in the world to use - he's definitely a Cunt! Nothing else would do.

I certainly hate seeing it (and other such words) in thread titles [shrug]

Have you seen The Vagina Monologues lesley i'd really reccomend it if you haven't.

I rarely use it online but I do use it in real life when I'm spitting fur and feathers, but only when I'm talking to DH (but not calling him a cunt). I may have used it in similarly hot-blooded conversations with my potty mouthed Dad

i still giggle at the Viz character Sweary Mary being called a "pissy knickered little cunt" by a nun about 20 years ago :o

I only use it on mumsnet and I use it 'affectionately' and to reclaim the word a bit.

I don't really use it in real life. It sounds too aggressive with my accent.

I'm not at all fussy about words which I read but don't say out loud.

If someone actually used obscenities in conversation, however, I would make it known that I'm not interested in the rest of what they have to say.

I think I've used it once on here.

Personally I reserve it for thinking a very small number of people.

Sadly the bitch who most deserves to be called it to her face never can be because of where she works

"Do you really think it's changed, tethersend? I don't think it has when men use it, frankly. And I do worry that women using it in a joyful, declamatory way gives men permission to use it in a darker, misogynist way."

I do, seeker. The word is never used in English to describe a woman, which is interesting (in the US the word is specifically to describe a woman, so signifies something different again). I don't think the word is misogynist at all, so I struggle to see men using it in a misogynistic way; even if they did, I would argue that the word is not the issue.

George Orwell wrote on the issue:

The whole business of swearing, especially English swearing, is mysterious. Of its very nature swearing is as irrational as magic indeed, it is a species of magic. But there is also a paradox about it, namely this: Our intention in swearing is to shock and wound, which we do by mentioning something that should be kept secretusually something to do with the sexual functions. But the strange thing is that when a word is well established as a swear word, it seems to lose its original meaning; that is, it loses the thing that made it into a swear word. A word becomes an oath because it means a certain thing, and, because it has become an oath, it ceases to mean that thing. For example, 'fuck'. The Londoners do not now use, or very seldom use, this word in its original meaning; it is on their lips from morning till night, but it is a mere expletive and means nothing. Similarly with 'bugger', which is rapidly losing its original sense.

Words used as insults seem to be governed by the same paradox as swear words. A word becomes an insult, one would suppose, because it means something bad; but m practice its insult-value has little to do with its actual meaning. For example, the most bitter insult one can offer to a Londoner is 'bastard'--which, taken for what it means, is hardly an insult at all. And the worst insult to a woman, either in London or Paris, is 'cow'; a name which might even be a compliment, for cows are among the most likeable of animals. Evidently a word is an insult simply because it is meant as an insult, without reference to its dictionary meaning; words, especially swear words, being what public opinion chooses to make them.