“Sticks and stones….will break my bones but names will never hurt me”… I never believed in that saying even as a kid. Words have the potential to hurt indeed they can’t physically break us but can emotionally. Recently I have seen the use of the word “cunt” casually used whether on placards, used in chants and in language. When I first got involved in politics during the 1980s I rarely ever heard or saw that word in a personal or political context. It was deemed a no-no word, certainly that was the mood within the feminist movement. Maybe it was due to a stronger and engaged Left influenced by liberation politics. Now I know there have been feminist discourses on reclaiming the word cunt, and women using it as a form of expression. I know the politics around reclaiming oppressive words but it still makes me very uneasy as the question remains for me, do we want to reclaim it?
Many women do use it in various instances, used primarily in put down situations to both men and women. Probably also as a way of reclaiming it in a political sense when confronted in a hostile environment. But there are better ways of confronting hostility. I can understand that but can never use the word whether in a personal or political context as I hate it, I hate how it’s used even by women. I haven’t read Inga Muscio’s “Cunt”. Though I was reading an old post by Jezebel on why cunt is still a big deal, I kinda understood why she uses it but I wasn’t convinced. One comment wrote about the hatred behind the word cunt. Indeed when I first heard the word as a teenager I was on the receiving end of it screamed at me by some male teenager, “You fucking cunt”!. I remember fuel injected bile and loathing hearing this monosyllabic four letter word. It felt kinda like verbal violence.
A word denoting the female genitalia is used to show contempt and hatred. And that makes me feel angry and worried. What did I feel like when I was called a “fucking cunt”? I felt dehumanised, devalued and demeaned. I knew what cunt meant and now I was hearing a word that is used in an oppressive manner meaning a woman’s vagina. An insult that means a woman’s genitalia. Whatever context it is used I still squirm when confronted with its usage, it is bad enough when women use it but a helluva lot worse when men do as it highlights and exposes the power relationships and the oppressive patriarchal and capitalist world we live in.
Back to this issue of “reclaiming” words, while I can understand why people do it, it still makes me uneasy. Sometimes reclaiming words can actually deny the political history and oppression certain words have meant. Words like cunt, for me, should just be chucked into the dustbin of history.
The other thing regarding cunt is the history, was it always used as an insult, a way to disparage and oppress women? It’s had a long history of taboo with it being outlawed. Did it always have the sexist overtones? But I suppose once a word becomes taboo it gains power. Middle English form of the word was cunte or kunte. Did it always have this connection of a hateful thing? When did a taboo become a obscenity? Was cunt just to describe the female genitals? Did the word get its it meaning by ambiguity? Cunt as a medieval connection to prostitution (Gropecunt Lane), used in Middle English proverbs, Chaucer, and so on. But cunt was used by Francis Grosse in 1785 when he described it as, “The chonnos of the Greek, and the cunnus of the Latin dictionaries; a nasty name for a nasty thing”… So when did a woman’s genitals instill so much fear and contempt? Etymologists are no closer to give a definitive explanation for the origin. Lexicographers say the usage of language gives it it’s meaning.
The power of the word, cunt, is magnified by it’s ambiguity? As Germaine Greer observed, cunt “has a genuine power to shock today”. Many feminists like Eve Ensler want to reclaim cunt but many still find it dehumanising being reduced to genitals but not in the positive liberatory sense.
That said, I still don’t want to use the word even as a way of reclaiming or empowering myself. I am not being po-faced and prudish, it’s just cunt has a misogynistic history and I can’t overcome that. Words like “fuck” another monosyllabic taboo/obscene word has different connotations and is not primarily identified with one gender. Sometimes it helps to think before we speak before we write as some words have different meanings and connotations for others that can exclude.
I agree that the fact men and women are using the term more and more is a real step backwards – I even find myself using it occasionally now when I never used to, and really kick myself when I do because I don’t want it to become something I say normally.
On the origins I believe it comes from the latin cunnus – meaning exactly the same thing – and it was used as an insult by the Romans in exactly the same way.
I can see where you’re coming from, but I think most (not all) people who use it today aren’t aware of the gender-specific nature of the insult. Whereas to call someone a “pussy” is to insult them as weak and unmasculine, to call someone a cunt is just like calling someone a prick. The seriousness of it is probably baggage from an earlier era. (There’s a scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm about this…)
Sadly I use all of these — not entirely in seriousness, it must be said — but then so too do most feminists I know. I think it’s healthy to take a libertarian view of “bad language” like this. I think, if possible, we should strip these words of their power to shock or offend by neutralising them, as I think has happened to a certain degree with cunt.
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I suppose you are against the use of words like “prick” “dick” “knob” “bellend” and “cock”. These words are more prevelant than “cunt”, so does that mean men are dehumanized more than women?
Also, I fail to understand *why* or *how* this word is offensive, derogatory, degrading and oppressive to women as a whole. Perhaps you could provide me with an example? Thanks
Not sure about this. Genital-based verbal abuse is a complicated area. We use many, many words for a man’s bits as insults – dick, prick, knob, bell-end, ballbag, helmet, wankshaft, smeghead – whereas for a woman’s there’s just cunt, twat and fanny as far as I remember. So there’s probably a bit more to it than straight out hatred of one sex and its parts.
In Britain at least, men and women use it almost exclusively to describe men, which is hugely different to the misogynistic, you-serve-no-other-purpose, American usage, and it’s definitely a mistake to apply a US analysis on this side of the pond. Before we condemn a word, it’s probably worth having a good look at all its usages and what exactly they’re expressing. I don’t think it’s inconsistent, either, to oppose the word in certain senses and use it with others – I personally find it quite a silly word for the actual body-part, an entirely appropriate one for most New Labour Home Secretaries especially David Blunkett, and really quite appalling when applied to a woman, unless with a clear implication that she’s being one in a particularly masculine way.
I don’t mean this in the sense of what about the menz, but you’ve got very little analysis of how words for men’s bits and contemptible men fit in. Without a close, nuanced look at that, word by word, usage by usage, I don’t think it’s really possible to understand how gender and genital insults fit together, and so not really sensible to reject those four letters offhand.
Then there’s the less conventional usages – telling someone to c- off, a past participle meaning drunk, “it’s c-ing freezing”, or just yelling it when you hit your thumb with a hammer. Plus there’s the Scottish guy I worked with affectionately calling people ‘cuntybaws’. Confining the whole word to the dustbin of history seems silly when swear words especially involve so much polysemy and, usually, a fair bit of play on irony. Maybe if I told you we had to keep one sense of the c-word in circulation for administrative purposes, which would you want it to be?
Oh, and what about the genital adjectives for non-human things – balls, bollocks and gash? Where do you stand on them? ‘Gash’, definitely, is a goldmine of neurotic misogyny. The relationship between patriarchal vadgeophobia and language is way more complicated than good words and bad words.
A thoughtful post.
I never say it – not even when extremely bad tempered or rattled! – and I don’t think others should. I also dislike hearing it, which I think is because – however meanings may evolve, and adapt to different contexts – the fact remains that it is an acutely derogatory reference to a part of a woman’s body. Its use as an extreme swear word therefore reflects living in a sexist society, especially one that has historically stigmatised female sexuality.
If it weren’t for that history then it would never have emerged as an abusive term. The fact that we DON’T live in a post-feminist paradise means it can’t now be treated as somehow floating free from ideology and society.
At the same time, it’s true that isn’t as unambiguous as the above might suggest. People can certainly use it without intent to belittle women, and it is applied to women and men alike. In this way it is different to ‘nigger’, which is unambiguously referring to black people. Some black people may choose to use the word themselves, but a white person would only use it if they were racist. When people use the c word, though, it is rather more complicated.
Finally, I was surprised this week to read that Laurie Penny had casually used the word in a meeting. It surprised me because I’d assume someone with Laurie’s politics would understand that’s a problematic (to say the least) expression to use. It seems this indeed an issue where some of the new generation could do with learning from a few of the arguments and debates we’ve been through before.
“It seems this indeed an issue where some of the new generation could do with learning from a few of the arguments and debates we’ve been through before.”
Or, perhaps a new generation is re-defining language to suit them? Language evolves, etc.
Gender aside (which, granted, goes against the gist of your piece), if we are talking about taking offence that the word describes genitals, do we apply the same argument to the words dick or prick? What about tit?
Personally, I feel the word is far enough removed from a literal description of genitalia when used as a put-down that it bothers me not in the slightest whether women or men want to use it. I would find it more troubling to hear someone say ‘you’re such a girl’, which, to my mind, is far more couched in dodgy gender politics than calling someone a cunt.
But Catherine you couldn’t ignore the power relationships between men and women, I hate the casualisation therefore normalisation of the word “cunt”. There is an asymmetry between the oppression of men and women and that power dynamic is exposed with language, language has power. Does “dick”, “prick” and/or “tit” have the same offensive connotations and meaning? Has “dick” or “prick” been described as a “nasty name for a nasty thing”…? Don’t think it has.
Thing is, you’re assuming we all ascribe those connotations to the word. I don’t.
Alex (the first Alex above) sums it up far better than I could.
It s funny because it is a sweary word I really like. I admit to using it a lot, I think it has a different meaning in Scotland and I know the English really hate it, like a big difference about the feelings. It always puzzled me why female genatalia was always a nasty thing.
It is my sweary word I use when I am the most angry, will use it to express my anger but its not really a word I would use for my genaitalia anyway, it seems a bit rude to call yer touche yer cunt.
Its not that I don’t understand where people are coming from I do but I would be hypocritical because I say it at work!!!
I really don’t like “gash” that would really upset me if someone used that word but then again I really hate the word “pish” so really I don’t make sense I flinch at people saying “that’s pish” or worse “i am going for a pish” but happily swear like a fish wife particularly enjoying the c word.
There is nothing as queer as folk
I agree with the gender politics points Harpy makes – but we shouldn’t forget it is also the most offensive swear word in the english language to pretty much everyone whatever their political position.
There are so many swear words and ‘rude’ words that are also words for genitalia that it seems odd to me to single out that one word. I think some words just became taboo because genitals were taboo. That’s what I object to, therefore I think that people *should* use those words, because genitals *aren’t* taboo and dirty things. I think a lot of people just don’t like that particular word because it is monosyllabic and sounds harsh.
The problem that I have with the use of the word is that it does equate vaginas/people who own a vagina with being hateful objects of contempt. In some ways the ambiguity built up around the word increases its oppressive power…you know the hateful meaning is there but is more difficult to challenge. You can be made to feel stupid for failing to see the supposed ironic or reclaimed context. Also being a revolutionary means allowing others to point out your own oppressive behaviour as well as getting angry about what the ConDems, New Labour or the establishment generally are getting up to. BTW as a bloke I do not feel oppressed by the words prick knob or cock. Men do not face the oppression that women face in any way. This includes casual informal belittling.
I remain unconvinced by your argument; mainly because of the cock/prick/knob thing that many people have already pointed out, as well as differences between British and American usages (I remember being really surprised when I first learned the difference. At this point, I had already used the word cunt for many years – mostly as an alternative for the words such as cock or arsehole, etc). But also because, although your post is essentially about why using the C-word is a bad thing, you later concede that “once a word becomes taboo it gains power”. So does that mean that you want people to stop using the word cunt or not? You’ve already stated that you’re against any measures to reclaim the word.
However, one seemingly innocuous word that I do believe warrants analysis is “bint” (the first two letters of the word bitch, combined with the last two letters of cunt, to truly hammer home a woman’s place in the world). I see and hear it used frequently; by right-wingers and left-wingers alike, sometimes with full-on vitriolic sentiment, and sometimes just as a casually patronising term of endearment. I’ve have never felt more oppressed by the use of language than the day I was angrily told to “shut up, you stupid bint”.
‘Bint’ is a funny one. Maybe other people understand it differently, but unlike ‘bitch’ or ‘slut’ I’ve never seen it as actually having much of its own invective. You can call someone a cow or a whore and it will still be offensive. Calling someone a bint without any kind of modifier like ‘stupid’ or ‘annoying’ strikes me at least as quite mild, often too mild to be serious. A bit like calling a man a ‘sod’.
I think this is part of its sting. While ‘bitch’ and ‘slut’ actually specify a flaw, ‘bint’ just seems to mean “woman I hold, for the previously specified reasons, in contempt”.
‘Bint’ isn’t an amalgam of anything, it’s Arabic for ‘daughter’. It came to the UK from soldiers stationed in Egypt and the Middle East before and during the First World War.
The most recent occasion I’ve witnessed the usage of the word “bint” was someone referring to Margaret Thatcher on Facebook’s Nobody Likes A Tory group (incidentally, also where I came across the link to this blog).
The choice of words the person in question used were “I wish that bint would hurry up and die” (note the lack of an adjective in that sentence). Whist I can’t argue with the sentiments of the latter part of that quote, I would have to say it’s likely the word bint was chosen because it was perceived it to be proportionate to the level of hatred he wished to express. Also bearing in mind the strong feelings regarding Thatcher and her ilk in the anti-Tory camp, using a genuinely mild word like “nincompoop” instead of “bint” in that sentence would’ve come across as a bit unbalanced.
As for “sod”, I believe that’s an abbreviation of “sodomite”. Therefore, its origin is likely to be anti-gay, rather than derogatory about men in general.
Perhaps mild isn’t quite the word. ‘Bint’ doesn’t actually contain any specific insult, unlike ‘bitch’ (obnoxious and inconsiderate) or ‘slut’ (promiscuous). You don’t learn anything about his opinion of Thatcher from it, other than that she’s a woman and contemptible. And no, you couldn’t have used ‘nincompoop’, but if it was a male politician, one of our milder man-insults like ‘twat’ or ‘dickhead’ would have made sense.
‘Sod’ is almost certainly anti-gay in origin, yeah, but I don’t see as that makes a lot of difference, unless you’ve heard people use it to actually mean gay. It’s odd how that and ‘bugger’ are so close in meaning as well, and it’s maybe heartening about historical attitudes to homosexuality that they’re so often used affectionately or for very, very mild insults.
Cunt is generally thought to be Gemanic – though the fact that it is so similar to, say, French, ‘con’ etc probably influenced its use since the Middle Ages as words from different origins often get merged (e.g. rest, rester).
Con, as opposed to conne is pretty light, and it’s used all the time, meaning prat, idiot, twat – two of which are of course slang for women’s sexual organs. But a derivative, connard, or connasse, is very nasty. Still French people can be pretty nasty!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt
I don’t much like the word but it comes out (as Alex says) and it’s applied for men.
I’ve got an old copy of Oz with articles in it by Germaine Greer about ‘Cunt Power’.
But surely the application of such a word – for no reason other than the recipient being female and disliked – makes it even more sexist than many other gender-related insults? At least with a word like “slut” one has a rough idea how to avoid being labeled as such.
How does a woman avoid being called a bint? It’s impossible to keep everyone happy 100% of the time, and it’s inevitable that someone’s going to find you displeasing at some point. Bitch has got a problem with that? Your opinions are worthless because you’re just a bint, and therefore inferior to me.
Twat and dickhead aren’t gender-specific in my experience of the terms.
“Bint” to me means “trivial female person”. the female is a key part – you could only call a man a bint in the process of saying “you are as trivial as a woman” – ie, by equating femaleness with triviality. In response to Alex, I think the specific insult in “bint” is simply being female, rather than being female and at the same time looked down on for some other quality – which I think makes the word worse. It’s not a word I come across much but I think it is clearly specifically anti-woman and therefore belongs on the index expurgatoris.
“Cunt” cannot be equated to words about men’s bits. To call someone a cunt is to make a huge insult; to call someone a prick, dick, scrote or whatever is trivial in comparison. The face that the female bits word is so much worse than the male seems to me a direct consequence of sexism in society and therefore justifies seriously discouraging its use.
“Twat” feels to me to be a mid-heavy insult rather than the worst word in the language. I don’t know why this is as it carries all the same baggage. Perhaps in context it was only used by someone displaying a moderate amount of hate of someone else, which leads to its mid-rating. Nevertheless, put it on the list.
In general, I don’t think it fits in with the argument to compare words for men’s bits with those for women’s because historically women were (still are?) seen as inferior. Therefore words for women’s bits tend to carry a sense of inferiority added to insult. Calling a man a prick has the implication of inferiority only because it suggests he has a small penis, one that pricks rather than does “proper manly penetration”. It doesn’t suggest the idea that he’s not a man at all.
I think this discussion carries a large chunk of the subjective with it. Centainly I have reacted to the words very much as how I feel about them and others may well have different evaluations; nonetheless, some words do refer to female bits and I think these are the ones that are seen as more insulting by a large majority of people, so there is a statistical argument for a level of objectivity.
I think also that this discussion is most important in an anglophone culture. In Egypt currently Mubarak is referred to as a “pig”, which there is far, far worse than it would be in Britain. But even as close as France, scatological words are worse insults than sexual ones.
My disconnected few penn’orth. BTW and given the ambiguous spelling of my name I am male, if that is relevant
“I think the specific insult in “bint” is simply being female, rather than being female and at the same time looked down on for some other quality – which I think makes the word worse.”
That’s basically what I was getting at – ‘bint’ is basically a neutral placeholder, because calling someone “annoying” doesn’t ever have the same venom as calling them “an annoying [swear-noun]“. But because almost all our insults are gendered (even ‘cunt’ has wildly different meanings when applied to a man or a woman), neutral placeholders can’t avoid a layer of misogyny and, as Louise points out, at least you can avoid ‘slut’ by wearing two burkas under your habit and zipping up your vagina.
I’d take issue with your analysis of ‘prick’ though. ‘Dick’, ‘knob’ and especially ‘scrote’ trivialise the object, but ‘prick’ is a pretty serious one. A prick isn’t a pathetic little winkle – it’s an arsehole with a peculiarly masculine, strutting, arrogant way of fucking the rest of humanity. And I’d definitely say that ‘cunt’, unlike twat, does not at all trivialise – you can’t laugh off the shitty little things a cunt does in the same way you can a twat’s antics.
A lot of the distinctions between swear-words will just come from accident of usage – all it takes is for someone somewhere to decree cunt is the worst word in the language and should never be said by anyone, and we start treating it with more reverence, saving it only for the most deserving. Then there could be the differences between which communities say them – if someone is being a twat and you call them a fanny, you come out of it sounding very Scottish indeed. The seriousness of certain insults can as much come from the region and social class they’re most prevalent in, and therefore their perceived vulgarity.
It’s also worth wondering about the disconnect between the insult and the anatomy. We use ‘cock’, ‘dick’ and ‘pussy’ for the actual bits, but ‘cunt’ and ‘twat’ are surprisingly rare for genitals. Plus I doubt many of the Americans who use it actually think about what ‘schmuck’ and ‘putz’ mean in Yiddish. Though ‘cunt’ is a pretty venomous one and ‘twat’ is quite patronising, the actual associations with women’s parts are quite weak.
Words are funny things, and as well as coincidence and sound and just copying what other people say, there’s an awful lot of power divides that feed into them, not just gender.
I use this word when issuing instructions to Loved One. Then I call him one if he gets it wrong.
lol!!