What IWS Fans Are Saying

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Cunt

Welcome to the first day of Spring one and all.  Here in Bagwine, Ohio the sun will be shining; the birds will be singing; and the temp will be hovering around the 83 degree mark…

A beautiful, and incredibly rare type of first day of Spring in Ohio, indeed.

But I digress…which is kinda cool.  See, I am so cool that I digress prior to pontificating upon my actual topic, leaving ample word count to cover my actual topic without future digression.

Anyhoo…

Today, I would like to exposiate on the word, “cunt.”

For some reason, no other word in the English language (American English, that is) is more offensive than the word, cunt…especially when directed at, or heard by, women.

The word “cunt” as far as anyone knows, has been around since the Anglo-Saxons brought it to England centuries ago.  It was back then, but a mere word for the vagina…not an obscenity.

Then of course the English, as they always do, fucked things up and bastardized the entire meaning.  The English (c. 1290) began to refer to prostitutes as cunts.  So…

The word cunt went from being a word that described a woman’s vagina to meaning a prostitute.  Is that so bad?  I don’t think so, but then…

For decades, and actually for centuries, cunt went back to its origins as being merely a word for the female vagina.

Oh why did I say “female” vagina, you ask?  Because blockhead Sean Hannity has a vagina and yet, is purported to be a male.  I still haven’t thought of a name for his personal and physiological chaos.

Anyway…

After centuries of use, only relatively recently has the word “cunt” been considered a derogative term toward women, so I ask myself:

“How and why did this simple four letter word  become such an offensive term?  How did it become the Unholy of Unholies?  Why are women so repulsed by it?”

After much back and forth over whether the word merely described female genitalia or was derogatory…

In the 1930’s here in our good ol’ United States, heap big censors of print, movies, radio, and the like, decided that “cunt’ was a derogatory term when directed at our homegrown, amber waves of star spangled womanhood.

Yes ladies, it was a bunch of old, stodgy white men that told you that the word “cunt” was and is, the most heinous of insults to be leveled against you, and that has been ingrained in the American culture for over eighty years.

Ironic, no?

Cunt…much like prick, dick, pussy, queer, nigger, loser, or any other insult, is no more nor less inflammatory than the other, and yet…

Many women, in fact many women I know, think that word cunt, is the end all and be all of insults.

Well…

It’s not.

Cunt is just a word…A word that was in Norse, and among the Anglo-Saxons, to mean vagina.

If women take the word cunt as an insult, and as an attack on them, they see themselves as under attack in a war of a word initiated by stodgy, old, white guys some eighty years ago, and ally themselves with them.

That's kinda sad.  Maybe we should just stick to calling women who think like that, pussies.  That seems to be an acceptable word.

Cheers!!

Matt-Man

Email:  neshobadude@yahoo.com
Twitter:  @mattmaniws

25 comments:

Mike said...

'That which we call a vagina. By any other name would smell as sweet.' Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)(amended).

I'm With Stupid said...

If I started using the word "cunt" I would have to drop another word from my vocabulary because I've hit full capacity.

Jay

Beth said...

Personally I don't find it offensive at all. In fact, I use it daily for everyone. I don't discriminate. That's how I roll;)

I'm With Stupid said...

Mike: Ha. I actually almost used that line as my title. Very Good. Cheers Mike!!

Matt-Man

I'm With Stupid said...

Jay: I personally, very rarely use the word, however, a person with whom I live, says it frequently and with gusto. Cheers Jayman!!

Matt-Man

I'm With Stupid said...

Beth: That's Hot. Cheers Aforementioned Person With Whom I Live!!

Matt-Man

Liz Hill said...

It was not really wiped clean of the offensive use but has certainly gained steam over the last century.

We use it in an acronym to describe the scourge and blight of out suburban byways--SCIM--Stupid Cunt In Minivan

I'm With Stupid said...

Liz: If Joyce, Chaucer, D.H. Lawrence and others of their stature use it to describe the hoo ha when trying to get a little sumpin sumpin, I'll side with them in its use rather than with old white guys of the early 20th Century and hip feminists of the 1970's who manufactured its offensiveness.

Thanks for the comments on this topic on FB. Always smart fun witchu. Cheers Turn!!

Matt-Man

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I bet your stats will be interesting with this header word!

I'm With Stupid said...

Peg: Ha... Exactly. I'm a social media whore. Hope things are good with you. Cheers Peg!!

Matt-Man

jack mehoff said...

i always liked hatchet gash, cock socket or ham wallet

I'm With Stupid said...

Jack: Ha...Of course you do. Cheers Jack!!

Matt-Man

Just me... said...

Thinking that words themselves are not offensive, it is the demeanor ascribed to them by the user at the moment they are uttered that actually defines them. After all, almost any word can become a slur depending on how it is said and the emotion the user wishes to convey. The same can be said of words used as endearments...

I'm With Stupid said...

Just Me: I wholeheartedly agree. And the impact of the intended offensiveness is based on how one reacts to the insult. Cheers Just!!

Matt-Man

Mai Yang said...

whoa. I dunno. I rarely hear that word around in our place (Philippines) but in American tv, it's everywhere..

maybe it sounds offensive since in tv, it was always used to offend someone, specifically women :)

I'm With Stupid said...

Mai: Really? I rarely hear it on American TV, of course since I manly only watch the news and sports, I only hear it when Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin a cunt. Cheers Mai!!

Matt-Man

katherine. said...

For some reason I thought of you:

http://www.theawl.com/2012/03/canada-bus-heh-heh-heh

I'm With Stupid said...

Kat: Ha. Thanks Kat. I'd love to her rubber to my road. Hope all is well with ya. Cheers Kat!!

Matt-Man

Jo said...

I love me some history, Matt, great post.

I like that language evolves and takes on new meanings...like the way "fuck" has become this mutable ninja word--one minute it's offensive, the next you barely notice it.

Why do we use the glorious vagina as the basis for so many slurs? It's because men are animals and loathe themselves. :D

I'm With Stupid said...

Jo: Ha. That's true about the loathing, Jo. I am fascinated by the history of words. This could have been a much longer post, but some cunts have short attention spans. Cheers Jo!!

Matt-Man

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