there is a woman at school who is such a prissy pita that I couldn't resist saying the c word in front of her

[moopdaloop]

no children around and it was relevant to the conversation I was having, although wanker would also have done. The people I was talking to laughed and agreed

I never use the c word normally

...she may have been surprised at other mums 'behaviour' and obvious lack of language skills?

Well if she wasn't shaken up by it, no harm done then!

Oh dear, I think I just have to accept that I'm immature - I have certainly had the same impulse.

btw the lack of language skills argument really doesn't hold water methinks. You don't use rude words because you don't know any other words! You use them because somethimes they just hit the spot or are funny. Some of the greatest swearers I know are the most creative and wordy people - writers especially.

...but if it just came out unintentionally? Alternative words not available?

I think everyone swears, just time and place. Striking that moop feels need to brag about it after event too? Ah well, each to her own.

It's just a fucking word. I use it, not in front of my granny or anything, but sometimes it can be funny. I think some of the holier-than-though schoolmarmy responses it has evoked on this thread are quite funny actually!

It's not just a word. Like 'fucking' is not just a word, which is why you've used it. It has a lot of connotations which is why Moop found it amusing.

God you lot are prissy!!!

Saying something shocking in an unexpected context, saying the unsayable, are all much used strategies in humour. Comedians use it all the time.

Anf if someone is prissy, and more likely to be shocked, it's more unsayable, therefore more shocking and more funny.

It is the adult equivalent of a child saying pooh out loud, but remember children think that is really funny!!!

I'm sure the other mother and others thought 'bloody hell I can't belive she's said that' and some lauged with the shock. but I really doubt the other woman was truamatised.

OP just monemtarily shocking her (and all you) with saying the C WORD!!! At the school gate!!!!!!!!

OP doesn't need to grow up, you all need to loosed up.

And I speak as someone who never says the c word and who would have been shocked but slighly amused.

I am so not offended by the F and C words. In fact i probably wouldnt have even registered it had been said, unless i was aware it would upset someone. I would have been less than impressed under those circumstances. I never swear in front of people unless i am happy that it woudlnt upset them. I would swear in front of someone who doesnt themselves swear but only if they were not offended.

i think it sounded amusing anyway!

there are a lot of mums at my dd's school who i would like to swear like a trooper in front of, im sure they already look down on me as it is..

So what do you have to lose then? Go for it would be my advice.

moopda- I think we need full context- of the joke- not the other mother's prisiness. I'm afraid I DO think swearing is big and clever. Try not to in front of DCs though.

I like the word 'cunt' lots. It is the best possible word for the female genitals (pace fanjo, obviously) - so much less twee than fanny or whatever. Also etymologically related to 'coomb' or valley, which I rather like as my mum's family are Coombses.

Using it to bootface prissy pita mum = childish but prob funny (depends on full context).

I shall depart this thread, and leave you ill educated persons to your own "chavfest"

I object to it being called "low-class" to deliberately seek to upset someone.

Is that really low-class behaviour? Do people in the higher social classes never do that then?

I'm not mad about it unless you're actually referring to the cunt. Presumably if wanker were an alternative, then you were using it as a term of abuse. Which I find a bit unpleasant. I would raise an eyebrow and look over the top of my specs at you I think. A (bad) habit from teaching I have carried over into my dealings with sdults...

I agree with LittleBella with regard to that comment.

Low class to describe a person who says CUNT is a very middle class thing to say

It's always advisable to steer well clear of the middling.

its The worst word

if one considers there to be a hierarchy of these things.

I echo the thoughts of Lavender and lucy ellen...

Really hate the elitist vs classist tone to the discussion - sorry if its not expressed quite correctly. Don't want to cause offence

Good for you moop (had dinner with some prissy friends of dh at weekend and the desire to shock was manifest), and at some of the intensely irritating posters on here, who having been so very very personal and insulting have far transcended what you said in terms of rudeness and immaturity

"would actually find it pretty offensive, from a feminist perspective"

I think most feminists would baulk at the idea that a word referring to female genitalia was considered so unacceptable.

I personally think it is mysogynistic that 'prick' or 'dick' is thought to be a Class C swear word whereas cunt is a hanging offence

the more you say it the easier it gets

What a lot of utter crap dittany