The 'c' word

[Terfing]

As in, the 4-letter word that refers to female genitalia.

I have started a thread in 'Site Stuff' asking them to ban the use of this word on Mumsnet. Personally, i find the word hugely offensive. It is shocking that one of the worst insults in the English language involves comparing someone to female genitalia. Even worse, I've seen it many times on the feminism boards.

What are other people's thoughts on this?

“I know in America it's a misogynist term but in the UK it's used to describe everyone,”
Sorry? What on Earth do you mean?

BertrandRussell

It’s not restricted to just women over here. In fact I’ve called a fair few children cunts before (under my breath or behind their backs of course).

It’s not restricted to just women over here either. It’s still misogynist. And i’m pretry sure that calling a child a cunt is unacceptable everywhere......

I don’t see it as remotely misogynist. It’s the worst of the profanities which is why I use it. As a previous poster said, well timed it can stop traffic.

There aren’t many words with that power these days.

Plus I like to shock by dropping it in polite company. I’m quite well spoken which adds to the effect.

Long live the C Bomb!

You don’t see anything misogynist in the fact that the worst possible profanity is a word for women’s genitals? The worst thing a man can call another man is a vagina?

I think it's vulgar and disrespectful to call anyone a C*t or a T*t.

C is the worst. I can't help but judge people who use it.

A particularly pornsoaked ex once said "I don't get it. My ex hated me saying it but it's not like I'm saying a lady's front bottom is a terrible thing!"

Cognitive dissonance

lol obviously it's misogynistic!

A woman's vagina is the most awful unspeakable thing there is.

I mean I use it from time to time (I'm very sweary and sometimes the feminism gets squished in the moment) but it literally means vagina and is, as mentioned, the strongest swear word available in the UK.

I always find it interesting that "fuck" is v rude but "bugger" is pretty mild, I mean all of it is inconsistent. And v interesting to look at from a feminist pov

It’s not restricted to just women over here either. It’s still misogynist. And i’m pretry sure that calling a child a cunt is unacceptable everywhere......

What sort of person looks at a child, no matter how badly behaved and thinks, let alone says "cunt" about them?

Plus I like to shock by dropping it in polite company. I’m quite well spoken which adds to the effect

Was the effect you were hoping for trying too hard show-off; best ignored?

“Was the effect you were hoping for trying too hard show-off; best ignored?”

“Attention seeking teenager”?

Lol! In case you missed it...

Meh, it's not something I can get worked up about.

To me it's the same as calling you a dickhead, dick, bellend etc....but then I know I've got pretty thick skin.

I'm interested in why "fuck" is v bad (second worst swearword here) and "bugger" which you'd have thought should be worse, is really very mild.

Anyone got any ideas?

Or just, language use is not consistent or logical.

Well done OP

I'm interested in why "fuck" is v bad (second worst swearword here) and "bugger" which you'd have thought should be worse, is really very mild

Interesting question. I'm sure lots of Masters and PhD papers have been written on that. I don't know the answer.

Fuck and bugger can be used by someone about themselves and there is no real aggression involved or any intention to hurt, insult or intimidate someone else. E.g the computer crashes just before you've saved some long, painstaking piece of work or you drop something heavy on your foot. One might say "oh fuck/ bugger " but I don't think one would say "oh cunt".

Someone on one or other of the threads said that if she called someone a "fucking bastard" she would be less angry with them than if she called them "a fucking cunt". I don't see the difference there. I would find both aggressive and intimidating.

I wonder if "bugger" is less threatening or offensive because people don't actually know what it literally means? Same as bloody and damn.

No idea,

Certainly bugger is v mild round here. Little buggers / bugger it / bugger off.. The car is buggered... It'sa good all rounder

Fuck is definitely stronger.
Calling kids little buggers sounds more affectionate, depending on how it's said, although you don't hear it so often any more. Calling kids little fuckers would raise eyebrows. Calling kids little cunts is definitely v strong.

There's no logic really. I mean certainly no question that cunt being the "worst" is obvious misogyny. If you say someone is a bit of a twat though, again not a strong, and kind of disdainful.

Sod as well is mild which is sodomy so why that and bugger are mild is anyone's guess.

Things differ between countries as well and even regions and thinking about it different social groups in what is "strong" and how sweary they are.

DH doesn't swear at all really. I was trying to get him to say "fuck" the other day when something had gone badly wrong (I mean not terrible but we'd forgotten something). He couldn't Meanwhile I swear a lot. So do my parents - I think he was quite shocked when he met them, my mum cooking with her usual accomaniment "oh shit I forgot to put the cabbage on bugger it where's the big fork bloody hell now I've dropped the sprouts" etc

Anyway.

No to banning.

And those of us who like the descrption wouldn't be able to call ourslves women of the old-fashioned (cunty) kind. Which is a reclaiming type thing, possibly. It's a powerful word, given that it's deemed so offensive, so to say yes I have a cunt get over it, is quite powerful.

Just thinking out loud now really apols for the over-long stream of consciousness!

I agree with the hierarchy you listed.

"Sod" I am sure is because people don't make the connection with sodomy.

Now I'm minded of the lost thread where the O.P got her words mixed up in G.P surgery and called her D.S a tiny wanker instead of whiny tinker 😄

Now I'm minded of the lost thread where the O.P got her words mixed up in G.P surgery and called her D.S a tiny wanker instead of whiny tinker 😄

🤣🤣🤣

The first time I used the word 'bugger', it was as a teenager in complete innocence as a result of reading James Herriot's 'All Creatures Great and Small' in which it's used as part of the Yorkshire farmers' vernacular (e.g calling a cow 'tha daft owd bugger'). My elder brother was shocked, and told me I couldn't say that but didn't say why not.

Likewise I had no idea what twat meant until I was almost 20.

I assumed it was just like twit but now assume twit is the clean version?

tarziew - "I would never utter the n-word though, and would always asterisk it to nger.

Was quite shocked to see it written out in full on here : /"

Can you explain why that one is particularly bad, compared to cunt or anything else listed? Where do you draw your line wrt acceptable vs unacceptable slurs/swearing?

Same about twit and twat here Marguerita.

Personally I actually find the word prick worse than cunt. I don't know why. I even found it harder to type it just now.

Interesting observation by previous poster that bugger is milder than fuck!

I noticed a few years ago how lots of words for ending up in a bad situation are the same as a word for someone penetrating you: you are fucked, shafted, stuffed, screwed, buggered. I think it is extremely telling about how really see sex. They do the shafting, women are shafted. Which is why they spend their lives disassociating themselves from anything related to the shafted/fucked/screwed group.

I try not to use these words now but it's hard to actually find a substitute.