Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To ask for help explaining why C**T is offensive

58 replies

Mehfruittea · 09/05/2017 19:15

So I think most people agree that the C word is offensive. But someone in the internet is arguing that it's not and everyone else needs to just grow up, that it is not sexist racist xenophobic etc.

Can I have your help explaining why this word is offensive to women in particular? Thus making it sexist? Please give me your strongest argument against this word.

I'm not interested in any comments from people who think it's okay, there is already a big fan club for this word I'm trying to argue against it!!

TIA

OP posts:

Fruitcocktail6 · 09/05/2017 19:51

I don't find it offensive.

Arkhamasylum · 09/05/2017 19:52

I think it can be used in a particularly misogynistic way - referring to a woman by her genitals, as if someone has looked at everything you are and seen through it to the fact that you are just a vagina. That hatred doesn't really exists for dick or knob. I think it implies that having a vagina is your secret shame, kind of 'woman, whom I hate'.

As others have said though, it's often used quite harmlessly, with no mysoginistic intent, particularly
in Scotland, where I've heard it used to just mean 'person'. (I heard Billy Connolly speak about hearing someone say 'who's that cunt with the pope?' It's not polite, but it's not hate filled either.

cauliflowercheese14 · 09/05/2017 19:56

As a scot in England I've lost track of the number of times I've casually said 'ya daft cunt ya' and horrified someone. I accept it's misogynistic but it just doesn't feel like that in Scotland.

Areyoulocal · 09/05/2017 20:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

Mehfruittea · 09/05/2017 20:45

Thank you for all your replies. I was struggling to articulate my own thoughts on it and you guys have helped.

I'm not a pearl clutching anti cunt using 50's housewife. I just don't think it is appropriate to use it where it is currently being used, within the context of promoting a local business that appeals to families. Admin have now banned the word from use and it's caused uproar, without anyone really defending the ban it justifying why it should not be used in this context. I feel armed now and I'm going in to battle.

OP posts:

Screwinthetuna · 09/05/2017 20:48

It's only on here that I've ever heard people really offended by it. It isn't bad at all to me, well, no more than dickhead or wanker or bitch.
I find 'fucking prick' the worst insult for some reason!

farmers · 09/05/2017 21:06

Where is the internet person from? Maybe it's just a cultural difference. In Australia for example, it isn't a particularly offensive word and it would not be unusual to greet friends by calling them the word.

notthemum · 02/01/2022 11:48

What has happened to the Sweary thread ?
Have been searching for it for ages .
C' mon you lot. I miss you , need to know what is going on in your lives ? And hoping to live mine vacariously through you as mine is quite shit at the moment

Mofomo · 02/01/2022 11:51

Out of interest, how willing are the unoffended to use the word infront of their own children

HarlanPepper · 02/01/2022 11:54

It depends on where you're from. It's practically slang for 'person' in Glasgow, where I live.

HarlanPepper · 02/01/2022 11:55

It's also very old - earliest recorded use is in the 1200s!

AuntieStella · 02/01/2022 11:56

I like the way that MN has always embraced the word 'cunt' specifically to break the thought that a slang name for women's genitalia is so much worse somehiw than any of the words for men's

I think we need to see it used more, not less

Mofomo · 02/01/2022 12:01

Yep I'll teach it to the kids immediately

SpankyPankhurst · 02/01/2022 12:02

I have no idea why you'd argue something was offensive if you weren't offended yourself.

Nathlash · 02/01/2022 12:02

@MooPointCowsOpinion

I think any word that uses a vagina as an insult is stupid, I don't think cunt is any worse than twat or pussy really, they all imply the worst you can possibly be likened to is female anatomy. Calling someone penis related insults isn't seen as so bad, it's even a bit silly. Ya dong. Knobhead. I don't mind swearing at all, but I do mind the patriarchy.

I think that’s fair. In my experience, it’s not in anyway equivalent in usage to penis-related insults in most dialects — it’s far more of an insult.

Crazykatie · 02/01/2022 12:07

A dick is a fool, a cunt and asshole are fighting talk, neither of which are likely to to be heard in my company, I would call them out if it they did.

WhatScratch · 02/01/2022 12:09

I swear a lot (not at people) and don’t generally find swearing offensive.

That a word referring to female genitalia is considered to be the most offensive swear word in the English language? There’s a lot of misogyny in that. That’s what I find offensive. There are times when men use the word bitch or cunt and you can actually feel the hatred of women radiating from them. The same words from a woman don’t carry the same baggage.

BendicksBittermints4Breakfast · 02/01/2022 12:13

@bibbitybobbityyhat

I'm quite on the fence about it.

Otoh, I love "Monty, you terrible cunt!" in Withnail and I.

But I don't like the cunt nns on Mumsnet. I think it's overused as a swear word on here too.

And when blokes banter with each other and casually call each other cunt ... nah, I'm not a fan.

Until I started to look at MN I don't think I'd ever seen it written so often, as well as a plethora of other words, especially from some people who are trying to demonstrate their parenting perfection! The ease with which many use it, and other words, makes me wonder what is said in front of their children!

lottiegarbanzo · 02/01/2022 12:13

It conveys deep disgust at female genitalia. Thereby misogynistic disgust at women.

Dick etc portray silliness, irritation, disregard for the importance of the organ (as perceived by its owner), not disgust for dicks or for men.

lottiegarbanzo · 02/01/2022 12:15

Most people using it affectionately on here are actively trying to 'reclaim' the word, so remove its power.

It's power is to convey disgust at women.

DropYourSword · 02/01/2022 12:16

Don’t know why it should be seen as any more offensive than bollocks to be honest. But if the social media page wouldn’t use bollocks in their advertising they shouldn’t use cunt. Something tells me though they probably would be happy to use bollocks or twat just as happily though.

slashlover · 02/01/2022 12:20

You realise that it's pointless because you're not going to change anyone's mind? You think you're right, they think they're right and all that's going to happen is you'll get angry and annoyed.

Speaking as someone who has made a resolution to mute people on twitter instead of arguing with them.

Snugglepumpkin · 02/01/2022 12:22

It is a female specific body part being used to describe something/someone as unacceptable.

Even when used as a backhanded compliment it still carries an implication of dismissal & disgust.

It is offensive that the word so widely understood to be nothing good is an exclusively female word.

As so many women are reduced to being regarded or called nothing but body parts it's also dehumanising. (Just look at the equally misogynistic move to call mothers who breast feed 'chest feeders' or the other dehumanising language the NHS are now coming up with. It displays nothing but contempt for the human female involved who is more than just those body parts)

When you use these words, we are just the bits of our bodies that men want to use when it suits them, but we are also nothing good.

slashlover · 02/01/2022 12:23

Out of interest, how willing are the unoffended to use the word infront of their own children.

There are loads of things I don't find offensive but wouldn't say to kids.

MrsRobinsonsHandprints · 02/01/2022 12:26

@lottiegarbanzo

Most people using it affectionately on here are actively trying to 'reclaim' the word, so remove its power.

It's power is to convey disgust at women.

Agree.

I if people 'call people out' when an adult uses the word.

However I read on here that 'cunts are warm inviting places where miracles happen' so I have started saying that cunt is too good a word to use for most people.

Flip

1 2 3