Yesterday and the day before, I began each morning with a trip to Lake Parker. So there are actually two sets of pics at the end of this blog.
But it was actually at the end of yesterday, that the thought for today’s blog was formed.
And I am fully aware that just the title alone will have dissuaded upwards of half the readers from skipping this particular blog entirely.
You see, I was at the end of yesterday and Amanda reached out to me at the end of my day and asked how my day had been and I replied that it was one, that might be best described as “a cunt of a day”.
As I climbed into bed, without as yet having heard back from her in response, I mused over the word “cunt” and thought how interestingly offensive it is to many Americans and yet how utterly harmless a word, it really is.
You see, “cunt” is generally defined as a vulgar word for vulva or vagina. And depending on where you live and what sex you are, your response to seeing that word expressed here is likely to be wildly different.
In Ireland or England, the word is generally used in a number of ways and is not regarded as very offensive. For example, a man might refer to another man as “he’s a good cunt”. But here in America, many people run a mile from it and it is seen as a grave insult and seriously crude.
Yet Germain Greer, one of the pioneers of the women’s liberation movement in the 60s and 70s published a magazine article called “Lady, love your cunt.” She argued that the word vagina was actually more offensive and I agree with her.
You see, the word vagina is derived from Latin and means “sword sheath” and therefore degrades the purpose of a woman’s genitalia as being nothing more than a receptacle for a man’s weapon. Go on, argue how much better the proper word “vagina” is now!!
But beyond the whole feminism of the word, I find it wildly amusing that America is disgusted by the word cunt, yet is familiarly comfortable with words that are seriously more vulgar and graphic like motherfucker and asshole.
Think about that … an incestuous sex act between a son and his mother is more acceptable than a woman’s vulva. And the specific focus on the anal cavity (rather than the more generic ass itself) is also more palatable than the vulva.
If you aren’t immediately recoiling away from such an acceptance of sexist disparity, then I am afraid, you are a victim of today’s non-sensical mind manipulation.
Cunt wasn’t always seen as a vulgar and unusable word. It has been used in great literature works from Donne, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.
In fact it was introduced into the general English vocabulary in the early 1200’s by the Anglo-Saxons as a general name for the vulva.
But Americans in particular have a habit of taking very ordinary words and corrupting their association to have evil and aggressive meanings that have nothing to do with the words themselves.
Gay used to be a completely innocent word before it was used here as a slur. As was homo, fag, and queer.
Then we generalize words like fanny, that in other countries are seen as wildly vulgar.
Some radical conservatives will spell out s-e-x rather than say it. And switch in darn for damn, or friggin, bullspit, goldarn, and a host of other nonsensical made-up words that frankly, are pathetically stupid.
So, what is the point?
Well, simply put … words are simply words. When we use words to insult, or express even a vulgar emotion, they are still just words.
George Carlin famously listed the seven words you can’t say on TV as being “shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits”.
While some of those have thankfully fallen by the wayside, federal law prohibits “obscene, indecent, and profane content” from being broadcast on TV or radio.
You can show violence and gore, rape and abuse, cruelty of all sorts … but for fuck sake don’t say the word cunt or we will have to lock you up.
… just a thought.
