Use of the C**t word

[Kintsugi16]

I wasn’t sure the word cunt was allowed in the title. Anyway.

I see this word being used more and more on forums and in general conversation. It was once shocking but is now becoming more acceptable.

Do posters, many who identify has feminists, not have a problem using a word for female genitalia as a derogatory term?

I'm Australian. Its practically our national word.

@Sarcobaleno

Thanks kitesflying. Justifiably deleted then.

Bit harsh! I was trying to comment that for some odd reason it’s not seen as offensive in the USA, that’s all, but didn’t asterisk it out. Didn’t realise it got an auto ban.

I hate hearing and seeing that awful word being used. It is derogatory and completely unnecessary. My husband got out of the habit of saying it sharpish after we got together.

@Happinessisawarmcervix I wasn't having a go at you. To my mind it's a really offensive word in a whole different way to cunt and it's right it was deleted if you didn't asterisk it. I didn't see the context because it was deleted...

Thanks @Sarcobaleno - I’m just embarrassed 😳 I don’t want people to think I’m an arse!

I like the word so much I bought the T-shirt. I really don’t like twat though

@Happinessisawarmcervix

Thanks *@Sarcobaleno* - I’m just embarrassed 😳 I don’t want people to think I’m an arse!

Same thing happened to me on a similar thread before- I think in the context of this thread most people would understand that you weren't using it in any way, just pointing out how offensive it is! And yes, it's definitely seen as more acceptable in the USA- perhaps it doesn't have the same connotations there?

I wish women could reclaim it as a non-swear-word.

You need to watch the Vagina Monologues. I also hated the word cunt in my earlier life, it was seen as the "worst" word and seemed so ... vicious, brutal, I guess, especially when used by men.
Then I went to see a show of the VM and there's a whole bit about reclaiming this word which really stuck with me, reframing it as a positive and to be celebrated. Now the word has no power over me at all, no shock value. Very liberating.

I don't really like it. I used to like "twat" as a fairly soft swear word but am trying to get out, then feel duty bound to avoid "dick" as well. "Arse" is sex-neutral and can be pleasingly Father Jackish. I agree with PP that "slag" is horrible and something I wouId not use, I don't like "bint" either- so contemptuous. Or "pussy"- contemptuous AND porn-y.

It's not racist it's a disability-related word.
Google "former name for scope" and it comes up at the top of the search.
Interesting conversation. This was the insult of choice in the playground when I was in primary school, (along with "ugh Johnny's got AIDS, Johnny touched the wall, don't touch the wall or you'll get AIDS, ad nauseam). By the time I left (late 80s) most of us had stopped using it and knew it was horrible. I think when I was smaller, most of us didn't even know what it meant- there was a girl with cerebral palsy in the secondary school next door and I didn't even know the word I was using was anything to do with that. It was just a swear word that you took care not to use in front of your mum and dad. I was a bit sceptical about the name change- I thought it would just end up with the wee kids and the horrible big kids calling each other "Scopers" - same insult different name; the name Windscale meant nothing to me but mention "Sellafield" and I would have said "fish with two heads". But I don't think it worked out like that.

Also, because the original insult was so ingrained as an insult in my mind as a child, well before I knew the real meaning, I thought it would never be scrubbed out but if I read an occasional article or listen to a talk discussing s paresis now, the insult meaning never flits into my head at all. I suppose the meanings of words in people's heads can change for good or ill.

I’m in NI and it’s a term of endearment to be honest!

But then we use most swear worlds like punctuation.

Depends where you are and who you're with, Glittery. Most of the religious people I know don't swear at all and I wouldn't use it in front of them.

love the word, used an extended version quite often in work, Cuntomers and as a slightly disguised arsey au revoir- C U Next Time, some of them get it but can't do anything about it.

The rules of “acceptability” are fascinating.

Basically it seems rude names for body parts are broadly OK, with a special shoutout to Bawbag which is brilliant - not even the testicles, just the wrinkly skin around the testicles.

Words around sexual behaviour eg. ‘slag’ are less OK as they’re unavoidably misogynistic but pretty much everyone uses ‘fuck.’

And words that come from disability or race are broadly unacceptable and rightly so, though Ricky Gervais persists with a few.

There’s a thesis there for someone!

It was to the poster complaining about the word cunt!!

I agree OP.
I often wonder how so many women, who would presumably call themselves feminists, can use a word meaning female genitalia as a term of vile abuse.
Or does it just not occur to them?

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

I agree OP. I often wonder how so many women, who would presumably call themselves feminists, can use a word meaning female genitalia as a term of vile abuse. Or does it just not occur to them?

Dick is genitalia Likewise knob Likewise twat Likewise cock Likewise cunt Likewise fanny

It seems as though male and female genitals are used equally as swear words and insults. I'm not sure how cunt is any more offensive than any of the others.

I don't use the B word or word for a lady dog, any of the terms for a 'loose woman' or any other word I perceive as directed solely at women in order to shame and demean.

There isn't one way of doing feminism and to tell women what they should or should not be doing, or that they are doing feminism wrong or being a woman wrong or using the wrong words which describe their own genitals, seems to have already been covered by the patriarchy.

@greycloudysky
You said exactly what I was thinking.
I hate the statement you cant be a feminist if......
No one person or group gets to define something that affects all women