To wince at the C word on MN

[Yarboosucks]

I am certainly no prude and have not lived a sheltered life…. But I am amazed at the use of the c-word on here. I just don't get the apparent acceptance to use a reference to female genitalia as an insult. Do people use that word in RL or is it just here?

Anyone remember Flanders and Swann:

Ma's out, Pa's out, let's talk rude: Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers!

The reason cunt is offensive is not that the anatomical cunt is a terrible thing, but rather that anything sexual could not be discussed in polite society for several hundred years. Therefore, saying 'cunt' marked you out as someone who was not part of polite society, something that the middle classes would try to avoid at all costs. As men were basically in charge, and they had penises which they acknowledged, the cock did not become so offensive (although a word for the sexual act did).

As the formal class structure became more fluid in the 20th century, the use of the word increased, although the bourgeois aversion to it remained (and, I have seen it suggested, possibly received a boost from the presence of North American servicemen in Britain during WW2, as the usage is much more gendered in the US and Canada).

So basically, I tend to think of people who have a specific aversion to the word 'cunt' as being Hyacinth Bucket types who are overly concerned that no-one will think they are common. The fact that a couple of them have popped up on this thread to mention that they do consider people who say cunt to be common, or think that it demonstrates that they have a poor vocabulary, bolsters my position on this.

I am generally very pro-swearing. It's fucking great.

I think it's laughable really that women can call men cunts when it's the worst word a man can use to describe a woman.

But why is it the worst word a man can use to describe a woman? Because women find it so offensive to be compared to their own genitalia? Or because men think that it should be so offensive?

No. Some words have connotations. It's history. Cunt is - ok- a word for a vagina. So are pussy and a hundred others. But you don't call someone a pussy or a fanny as an insult in the same way as you'd use 'cunt'.

Cunt is meant to shock and be insulting- that's why it's used.

Incidentally, it is more correct to say that vagina, vulva, fanny and pussy are words for cunt. Cunts have been around longer than the others.

badtime that's really funny because without outing myself, if you knew my work, then you'd see how wrong that was...

now what might that be? Best selling novelist, broadsheet columnist, academic linguist- maybe all of them- but poor vocab isn't the issue and neither is being Hyacinth Bucket.

It's just offensive. people have a right to find it offensive just as much as you have a right to use it- but you could be mindful that some people do find it offensive.

and I'd like proof that in terms of history of language, cunt has been around longer than pussy. Pussy comes from old French for 'pocket. Quite sweet really.

pinkfrocks, how wrong what is?

pinkfrocks

cherishthecunt.com/2013/02/10/origins-of-the-word-cunt/

On this site we do not have to be mindful that some people find it offensive.

If people are offended by it that's their prerogative but we're allowed to use it here.

If you don't like it, pinkfrocks that's your issue. You don't get to moderate language on here I'm afraid. Unless it's used in a personal attack.

You don't like. We get it. Those of us that do shall continue to use it.

Anyone remember Flanders and Swann

Oh, me sir, please sir!

When you say "remember" I think that song might be even older than I am, but some things never get old.

I don't think pinkfrocks is advocating any form of censorship. I believe that the point being made is that when someone is posting about sensitive issues that are of fundamental importance in their life, then in responding one needs to be cautious.

I'm with you OP and not with most others in this thread it seems! I cannot bear the word and have never used it yet can happily swear like a trooper and also do not consider myself remotely prudish or sheltered ??! I also hate hearing anyone else use it but it is the only word I feel like that about. Each to their own though ??

All those question marks were supposed to be these

"There’s a word you’ll have to get used to. Cunt. This is a word that many people do not like. But you have to understand the English. In England, the word cunt is punctuation. It's an old, old English word. If you look at old maps of English towns, going back 800 years or more, you'll find the red light districts marked as Cunte Street or, more helpfully, Grooecunte Lane. We're not a very pleasant people, the English. The French speak in music, but English only soars when we start being bloody 'orrible to people"
Warren Ellis, Crécy

I do believe that Shakespeare was rather fond of references to cunts and "cuntry matters".

If historical references were to be the arbiter of acceptable language, then we would not recoil from use of the N word.

DH is a liberal user of the word, as is (surprisingly) my MIL. I was brought up by strict parents and could rarely rouse myself to use it - I thought I might get inexplicably struck down by the God of Perpetual Courtesy. These days I'm far more desensitised to it (seeing it all over MN has been useful) and may even throw in a few myself here and there to make a point or express extreme agitation.

Personally I wouldn't use it during normal conversation with anyone other than DH and a couple of my friends. The word doesn't offend me at all, but I still get a tiny Victorian twist in the heart when I see it written down or if someone unexpected uses it. One of my personal favourites, though, is when DH says that the weather is cuntish.

I swear constantly in real life, and yet not so much here. I do use cunt, though mostly as a term of endearment with friends 'Alright cunt?'

I love the word cunt, I really do. It may be my favourite swear word.

I have got all but one of my colleagues (only 8 of us) using it too, I have noticed.

My manager will often say, for example, 'now where's my cunting phone?' . This is a man who would say things like 'sweet F A' when I first knew him.

OP, start off with a gentle whisper of cuntybollocks - and work your way up to the real C cunt word from there

Me and my dh chuck the word around at eachother like its going out of fashion. Neither of us take offence to it in tbe slightest.

Although I hate hearing it being referred to by women to describe their bits. Like "my cunt hurts". For some reason that bothers me. No idea why.

I say cunt often. It's just another swear words and I've never understood how people takes such offense to that word but not other swear words. Isn't it just like calling somebody a knobhead? Why's a vagina more taboo than a penis? Love the line in bridesmaids when she tells the girl in store shes one. Also sometimes I'm just a cunt and say cunt to annoy those who don't like the word