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Cunts

17:32 / 08.11.01

Poor Old Bio's thread is rotting, so I've started this thread.

Right then, cunts. Bitchiekittie said in that thread that it was annoying:

that I dont know an appropriate non-nasty name for the vagina. isnt the word vagina the ugliest word??? and the only other ones I know shouldnt be spoken in public

Some of you have put your opinions down already there, but I thought I'd start this thread to stop the rot in what was an innocent little thread about making people's anuses (anii?) bleed.

Cherry referred to Inga Muscio's idea the word cunt should be re-claimed as a positive word for women to use.

I'm sorry to say, I go exactly the other way and agree with Gerry Sadowitz on this one. He suggested the word cunt should be reclaimed purely as an insult, because it contains so many hard, harsh sounding consonants. So which way do you go?

(off-topic: This is a piece of genius which someone pointed out to me, where someone who got sick of people coming to her site looking for 'cunt' in the sexual sense decided to take matters into her own hands. As it were.)

Edited to add: And all other thoughts on genital insults, such as why they arose, what their implications are, etc, are very welcome. And to fix a cupple of type o graffikal erorrs, too

18:12 / 08.11.01

Cunt is linguistically related to the name "Gwen."

Both from Celtic or Welsh for "valley."

The Return Of Rothkoid

18:56 / 08.11.01

Something that's niggled at me - does anyone know if "queynte" (the Chaucerian version) is related in any way to "quaint"? It just strikes me as somewhat linguistically interesting that someone who says "Wow, what a quaint town!" could, unknowingly, be saying "Your locale reminds me of genitals."

I could be reaching here, but hey - I'm a dreamer. Anyone know if the root of the two words is shared?

09:27 / 09.11.01

I've known a lotta chix (speaking of reclaiming) who have reclaimed the word. It's definitely an occassion specific usage, but they've reduced it from the nasty to "C word" to something on the same level as "dick". Not something you'd want to say to your grandmother, but it still has a somewhat neutral twang to it.

Brits seem to have it a little better than we Americans, dialect-wise. We inevitable make the flat "U" much flatter, especially in the south. It's got an automatic contempt built into the sound. Like we belch out the word.

10:19 / 09.11.01

i agree with the hard consonant thing: it's great for expressing real vehemence. on the other hand, people use it with such vehemence, that it's easy to see why peeps could get offended....

on the other hand, i support the notion of reclamation, too. especially for talking dirty

it would work out just fine if there was a male alternative that sounded as harsh, but cock, dick etc just don't have the same hardness of sound, and as such aren't as forceful.

though maybe that's a good thing.

there are quite a few place names that are reputed to have stemmed from "cunt", like the river kennet (famous for longbarrows and pagan goddess worship). i'm not sure if kent stems from the same thing, but if the first thing's true (and grant's comment makes me think it might be), then "kent" probably does stem from "cunt".

which means y'all are perfectly justified in calling cop killer rude names

No star here laces

11:10 / 09.11.01

But female genitals are dirty, stinking, bleedy puss-pits with teeth in them. I think cunt is an ideal word...

11:22 / 09.11.01

Not forgetting the infamous alley in London known (until bowdlerised) as Grope-cunt Lane. Pretty obvious what the main trade was, I think.

11:58 / 09.11.01

And of course the English insult "berk" is short for "Berkshire Hunt", which is Cockney rhyming slang for...

15:45 / 09.11.01

I think cock is a great word. Cock cock cock!

"Dick" is of course also used as an insult, so I don't think female are completely getting the, er, shaft. And I would like to point out that it's not as if "penis" is the best-sounding word of all time.

16:11 / 09.11.01

I just want to contribute my current obsession: the word 'vagina' refers *only* to what I like to call the 'birth canal', not to the labia, clitoris, or any of the funnest bits of the cunt.

Me, I say cunt for the whole doings, labia, clitoris or vagina if I want to be more specific. Or go for metaphor, if I can find a decent one.

But I never say 'vulva'.

16:46 / 09.11.01

They're such dull cars, aren't they? (Ahem)

Originally posted by Grant:

Cunt is linguistically related to the name "Gwen."
Both from Celtic or Welsh for "valley."

Actually, the Welsh for Valley is 'cwm', another rude-sounding word.

Gwen or gwyn means 'white' or 'fair.'

22:04 / 09.11.01

I like the Chaucerian 'queynte', Rothkoid, but don't know whether it's related to 'quaint'. However, the Old French, queinte, cointe to which 'quaint' is related, meant 'wise', 'knowing', 'skilled', 'clever'. Figures, eh? We gels can happily reclaim/revalue the term.

I also rather like the Middle English cunte, counte, in Old Norse kunta, and Old Frisian kunte. To my ear 'cunt' sounds better in its old form with the e-sound on the end (similar to the e in the, as in the book, and as in German e.g. Gabe gift).

00:05 / 11.11.01

Ive always liked "vertical smile"...it sounds warm and pleasing.

00:05 / 11.11.01

I dunno whether this is too offtopic, but an anthropologist once had a theory that animal names for genitalia, and animal terms of abuse (the two obviously being related) tend to stem from the kind of animals around one's locale. For example, the fact that cats are kept as pets in the west explains 'pussy' or 'chatte' as English/French terms for the female bits, and the fact that pigs were kept within the oikos or household in ancient Greece explains the fact that the equivalent expression for woman bits translates as 'piggie' (Haus will be able to remind us of the actual Greek word).

I find this fascinating anyway, even if as a theory it's got some flaws.

<sits back and waits for Haus to rail against his sloppy grasp of the classical world>

[ 11-11-2001: Message edited by: Bill Laden ]

11:46 / 11.11.01

If that's true, where does 'bearded clam' come from?

11:47 / 11.11.01

Well then, for what it's worth, it's conejo in Spain. I can't remember if it was a gaffe or just brilliantly misogynistic for the guy in For Whom The Bell Tolls to keep calling the girlfriend his little rabbit.

12:09 / 11.11.01

quote:Originally posted by E. Randy Dupre:
If that's true, where does 'bearded clam' come from?

Er, er, weeeeell, some people may have clams as pets in Europe or the US.

Nah, like any theory, it doesn't explain everything! Sadly...

20:03 / 11.11.01

quote: But I never say 'vulva'

Isn't Vulva also the name of a sports car or something? or am i thinking of volvo.. also it's intresting my roomate kimber takes me to her human sexualtiy class which is kind of intresting..never before have i seen a model of a 5 foot penis O_O anyways she was telling me about this other class or lecture called Elthis of the Cunt.. but it is a weird word i like powder puff

19:01 / 12.11.01

I'm sticking to the Welsh thing, man. Too ingrained in my head now. (damn professors)
Maybe cwm and gwyn came from a similar root or something.

There was some other word or name,too, that came from cwm.

Mordant Carnival

19:51 / 12.11.01

"Flower" is a pleasant and inoffensive word which could be used by young and old alike. "Mary" is likewise gentle and genteel, and an obvious feminine conuterpart for the male "willy" (William and Mary, duh).

Mordant Carnival

19:58 / 12.11.01

quote:Originally posted by E. Randy Dupre:
If that's true, where does 'bearded clam' come from?

A deep-seated fear of women's genitalia, manifested as pureile vulgarity. See also "busted sofa", "pissflaps" "hole in the bed" etc.

20:47 / 12.11.01

I like "fanny" meself. Don't know exactly why.

"Gwyn" means "white", as far as I can remember. It also sounds like "quim".

"Cunt" has always sounded a bit archaic to me, like the sort of word used by a sixteenth cenutry midwife.

15:38 / 13.11.01

Originally posted by anchovy:

I like "fanny" meself.

Oh aye? Me too.

Seriously though, fanny is one of those words, like fag, which don't 'translate' between American and proper English. ('proper' - hahahaha

)

I remember hearing this American saying she was going to give her friend a 'kick up the fanny' to get her moving, which I thought was a bit OTT until I realised she meant her arse.

Anyone know why this happened?

(edited to add: I mean why the word changed meanings between the two countries, not why the girl above was going to boot her mate.)

[ 13-11-2001: Message edited by: Not Me Again ]

18:47 / 13.11.01

quote:Originally posted by Mordant Carnival:

A deep-seated fear of women's genitalia, manifested as pureile vulgarity. See also "busted sofa", "pissflaps" "hole in the bed" etc.

I dunno - "busted sofa" and "hole in the bed" seem rather offensive, while "bearded clam" just seems sort of mildly funny - like "trouser snake," as opposed to "snotty love stick".

I kind of like the Tom Robbins expression "peachfish" as well.

19:05 / 13.11.01

...fanny is one of those words, like fag, which don't 'translate' between American and proper English... – Not Me Again

I got into so much trouble last year on the Scotrail Glasgow-Inverness booze-a-thon (er, I mean train ride...) with five lusty lads from John O'Groats concerning the terms "fanny" and "pants". Hysterical.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:44 / 14.11.01

I'm not usually into censorship... but I do think the word cunt should be expunged from the language in an Orwellian linguistic putsch...
...cos then Jeremy Clarkson wouldn't even be able to exist as an abstract concept.

21:46 / 14.11.01

it's important to use the word cunt because it sounds so good and there's nothing nasty boys can say back to you after you've said it.
if you say it more and more it will lose it's power, but if the power is being used for bad, against you, then fuck it, say it every day. lots and lots.

07:51 / 17.11.01

i think you're all

07:18 / 19.11.01

quote:Originally posted by Kooky is a bad scamp:
there are quite a few place names that are reputed to have stemmed from "cunt", like the river kennet (famous for longbarrows and pagan goddess worship). i'm not sure if kent stems from the same thing, but if the first thing's true (and grant's comment makes me think it might be), then "kent" probably does stem from "cunt".

which means y'all are perfectly justified in calling cop killer rude names

Not that they need any more reasons...and I think that everyone at my highschool had that exact same theory; and for a while, to get people to remember my name I would say that it "sounds like cunt with an e."

I like the word vagina, it kinda sounds cool when you think about it, almost smooth sounding, but I like the sound of v's.

The whole taking the power away thing doesn't seem to work; despite the rap community's constant use of it, the word "nigger" still has as much power as it always did, same thing with the gay community and "fag." I don't think that using it nonchalantly will make it less of an insult.

17:14 / 21.01.02

the word "cunt" used to set me on edge but lately Ive even begun to refer to myself as one. funny how drastically a little age can change your perspective on the details...

19:40 / 21.01.02

i like cunt, pussy, cock, shit and fuck.

but i especially like motherfucker.