Stephen Fry: The joys of swearing

[Andrew D]

give an example: if people used the word "cunt" all the time it would have less power.

But why did we give that word that power in the first place?

It did not always have that power. There was a time when it was no more offensive than today's "vagina".

Thus, Lanfranc's Science of Chirurgie says "In women the neck of the bladder is short, & is made fast to the cunte." No offense was intended, and, as far as I can tell, no offense was taken.

So how did a perfectly ordinary word -- eye, toe, kneecap, scrotum, navel, chest, cunt, finger, hair -- become offensive?

And, more importantly, why should we let it be offensive?

Why don't we just let it be an ordinary word for a thing that is a part of common human experience?

[Andrew D]

The elevation of scum - it had to happen

How is "fuck" "scum"?

How is it any worse than "copulate"?

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is an ordinary word Andrew. All words are ordinary, IMO. Delving into ancient medical text books however is not usually a valuable exercise in determining how words are used in non-medical contexts. The word you cite was surely in use amongst people before, during and after the time of Shakespeare and yet it appeareth not in so much of literature, of history and of technical or scientific treatises. Apparently humans have managed to express actual adult ideas without using such language for centuries.

Yet for all this "common human experience" people who enjoy using the "unacceptable in polite society" words choose not to say such things as "You really are a navel!" and "Scratch you, you toe!" instead. The conclusion is that the words are used precisely to engender shock and revulsion and to replace consideration for others with self-indulgence.

Meade

PS "scum" refers to those who enjoy using such terms, rather as babies enjoy rooting through their own dirty diapers

[Sean]

And then there was that stupid Lara Bingle Australian tourism ad that said 'where the bloody hell are you', that created so much offence overseas, and yet was just using a bit of wll known Aussie slang.

Oh right! I thought that the ad caused offence because it had Lara Bingle in it...

[Sean]

[Andrew D]

But why have we chosen to give some words such power, General?

Why have we chosen to make it matter whether on refers to the thing that one should avoid stepping in as dog "poo" or "dung" or "shit" or "excrement" or "crap" ...?

What about the word "shit" makes it worse than the word "poo"?

Nothing in the word. Something in us.

And I am suggesting that we have made the wrong decision. We have chosen to invest in the word "shit" a kind of power which we have chosen not invest in the word "poo".

We give the words their power. We do that by choice. And not all of our choices are good ones.

Look up the etymology of the word "vagina". A sheath or scabbard. The place where one puts one's dagger or sword.

I do not see how replacing a perfectly neutral word like "cunt" with a latinization which turns one of a woman's reproductive organs into a metaphor for conquest is a good choice.

Do we men make love with women? Or do we stab them?

Personally, I'll take a cunt which I hope to please over a vagina which I intend to invade.

[Sean]

Wasn't it Gandhi himself who said, "Well, you can't please every cunt!"

[Gob]

ROTFLMFFAO!!!

[Gob]

Geoffrey Chaucer. The Miller's Tale (1386): ' Full prively he caught her by the queinte.' and ' Prycelyhe caught her by the queynte.'

[Sean]

HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPHELIA
No, my lord.

HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.

HAMLET
Do you think I meant country matters? *nudge, nudge* *wink, wink*

OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between
maids' legs.

ROSENCRANTZ
Ooh er missus!

[MajGenl.Meade]

. . . yet it appeareth not in so much of literature . . .

is not the same thing as saying it "appeareth not at all". Unlike Stephen Fry who so very often doth appeareth a tool.

Meade