to be dispirited by the fact that there are properly outraged threads about Saatchi and Inverdale no here today, but

[curlew]

....... they are being described as "cunts" and "fannys".

They are obviously both despicable in their attitudes to women. But when we reach into our " terms of abuse" vocabularies we pull out words for women's genitals.

I have seen them described as bell-ends and knobs, but not sure if that makes it any better.

Never fret Curlew...I said arsewipe!

Oh here we go.. Ok they're pricks/dicks/knobs too.. Better? What does it matter??? Sometimes 'female' insults are used, sometimes 'male'....

Which are considered worse?

Considered worse by whom?? I don't consider either worse.. But then I don't have a chip on my shoulder and I'm not precious..

theyre swearwords. Theyre not actually proper words for genitals,

Im fucked off that everyone wants to censor every fucking thing now

swears a bit more

I don't see either as being worse in the male or female sense, but cunt is worse than fanny and prick is worse than dick somehow.

I also think Saatchi is worse than Inverdale on the evidence so far.

yy I do agree it is a bit weird - like the most insulting name is female - it's odd

I don't want to censor anything. I just think it's a bit odd to use a word for women's genitals as a term of abuse when describing a male sexist bastard and a male domestic abuser, that's all.

And cunt is definitely a worse insult than prick, knob or bell end. it's disingenuous to say otherwise.

I suppose 'arse' is nicely non-gender specific.

Did I hear that Nigella is getting divorced now?

Yes, apparently he says she put her hand on his neck too.

SO THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN.

'Im fucked off that everyone wants to censor every fucking thing now'

I really don't think that's the case. The ones who want to censor shout loudest, that's all. There are many, many quieter voices who think over-censorship is a pile of shit. Which it is.

Is that Jjust cause' then? Mutual throttling?

Wouldn't censor, but I think the depths of profanity mumsnet will sink to is beyond the pale to be honest.

I don't know what his grounds are. He's obviously a control freak who simply can't bear the idea that she would file first.

Who wants to censor what?

I don't think the OP is talking about censorship. She's pointing out that on threads with a feminist slant, the terms used to describe horrible men refer to female genitalia - because obviously female genitals are nasty enough to fully describe the awfulness.

The censorship would involve replacing female genital related swearwords with male genital related swearwords or non-genital related swearwords, or who knows, maybe swearwords in general. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

I would guess though, that simply censoring female genital related swearword would be fine.

'Cunt' has a dual meaning- it means both a vagina, and a despicable person (usually male).

This does not mean that to call someone a cunt is to insult vaginas, just that the word is being used to mean the second definition; in the same way that nobody thinks that cricket is played with small, blind, flying rodents.

'Cunt' is not a bad word- it's the best word for a bad thing.

Could you say that again, sigmmund, in different words? I don't understand.

Jesus Christ.

Yes it does tethersend - because somebody horrible is - what, a nice thing (cunt) or horrible thing (cunt). It means horrible, it means the somebody is a horrible thing and that horrible thing is a cunt.

No, that's not always how language -especially swearing- works, Crumbled.

The words 'fuck' or 'bastard' are good examples of words which now mean something different when used as curses, although retaining their original meaning in other contexts.

My assertion is that 'cunt' has now done the same.

What is odd is that you never hear a woman being described as a prick or a knob.