Yes, but there’s evidence that it’s functioning under a different dynamic now.
[
](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201266.html)
My google fu is weak at the moment and I can’t seem to track down the original study that is free to read, only this copy. But the abstract states:
Do a search for “Hillary” + “cunt” and try again.
Perhaps my standards are low, but this is the weirdest damned thread I’ve read today. It’s… weird is what it is.
You don’t understand. The problem appears to occur primarily when conservatives do it.
Do you really think I could post an OP in which I call Chelsea Clinton or Michelle Obama a cunt and not be deluged with venom as a result? I can assure you the response would be a good deal different than the OP is getting here, and more than a little of that venom would be spent castigating me for a sexist/conservative mindset that seeks to minimize or marginalize women and/or reduce them to a body part.
Chelsea, Michelle, and Laura Bush are/were not running for office, and it would be rude to call any of them a cunt, unless you know them personally. OTOH, it’s quite OK to call Sarah, Hillary, and yes, even Nancy a cunt for even the most trivial reasons, IMO.
Are you serious? I don’t recall reading anywhere in my Leftie Guide to Politically Correct Speech and Other Ways to Look Down Your Nose At Conservatives that it was hunky dory to refer to women as cunts as long as they were in politics.
This is all so confusing.
Do you have the 1993 edition or the revised edition? We had to update a few things after Monicagate.
No dear, it’s very simple. It’s hunky dory to refer to women as cunts if they are being cunts. Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Chelsea Clinton haven’t, to the best of my knowledge, acted like cunts (in public, anyhow). By all means, apply the label as you see fit, but it’s best reserved for cunts.
So Washoe, how does it feel to be even dumber than Sarah Palin? I can’t even fathom.
It’s right there in chapter 7.
Not sure about the Rightie Guide to Winning Political Arguments, but I think it’s in the chapter before Calling a Black Man a Closet Muslim Terrorist Sympathiser Without Sounding Too Racist.
You waited until we were 12 posts in before you decried the lack of sexism accusations. However did you restrain yourself from the rush to judgment? Would you cry sexism if Michelle Obama was called a cunt? Or do you only get up on your white horse for people who agree with you politically?
But…but…I thought the word wasn’t supposed to be used about women at all! Even Jane Fonda got in trouble for it. It says right here on page 118 that it disparages women and reduces them to a body part, and that "apart from the n-word it is the most offensive of all English words’.
Oh, wait…there’s a footnote:
** Despite criticisms, there is a movement within feminists that seeks to reclaim cunt not only as acceptable, but as an honorific, in much the same way that queer has been reclaimed by LGBT people.[12] Proponents include Inga Muscio in her book, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence[13] and Eve Ensler in “Reclaiming Cunt” from The Vagina Monologues.
The word was similarly reclaimed by Angela Carter who used it in the title story of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; a female character describing female genitalia in a pornography book: “her cunt a split fig below the great globes of her buttocks”.[14]
Germaine Greer, who had previously published a magazine article entitled “Lady, Love Your Cunt”,[15] discussed the origins, usage and power of the word in the BBC series Balderdash and Piffle. She suggests at the end of the piece that there is something precious about the word, in that it is now one of the few remaining words in English that still retains its power to shock.[16]*
So it looks like the word might be gaining respectability after all.
Damn, I wish I’d known that during the Democratic primary!
Of course! But now you can’t say “stupid” “disabled” or “kumquat”. Do try to keep up.
As much as it warms the cockleburrs of my heart to see that you are speaking to me again, I have to point out that I may very well not have been here for the first 12 posts.
No, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I’m just confused, that’s all. For nigh onto forty years now, the left has been telling us that cunt is a dirty word that demeans women and I’ve seen (and read) lefties and feminists get into high dudgeon indeed and behave angrily whenever it might be used.
Now, on this most unquestionably left-leaning board, I find it being flung about with abandon. Sometimes this is within the context of a failed love affair or some shabby treatment from a member of the fairer sex, and these are sometimes but not always met with gentle reminders or entreaties from others (most usually women) not to use such demeaning terms for women.
Other times it is within the context of a conservative poster or political candidate and not only are excoriations nowhere in evidence, one rarely encounters even a gentle reminder that such words are not appropriate.
So the result is that I’m left to think that, just like with tolerance, the left requires it of the right but exempts itself.
What say you?
I know. It really is hard trying to keep up with all this and still lead a productive life. I only found out just the other day that “Oriental” is now considered offensive.
But have no fear. As a ‘compassionate conservative’ I will continue to soldier on and do the best I can.
I’m with you on “Oriental”. It means “Eastern”. I mean, really, fuck’s wrong with that?
“Soldier on”? haughty sniff Terribly insensitive of you in a time of war.
That the left isn’t a hive mind?
I too have heard people claim “cunt” as an inherently sexist, or misogynistic, or just generally degrading to women term to use. I personally think that’s nonsense; it certainly may be used that way, but not necessarily, and plenty of words can be given a twist of those bad things while being acceptable anyway. But i’ve never claimed otherwise, either. Am I a hypocrite, a person requiring of the right that which I am unprepared to require of myself? No. I’m not responsible for people who have different ideas yet share my leftiness.
If you can find examples of people who have said “cunt” is a dirty word that demeans women turning around and using it happily themselves, then you might be able to start making a case. If you can find a person or persons who does show that double standard, fair play, you have a case that can be made on them. But you can’t hold all lefties responsible for the words of some. And it does rather appear to me as though that is what you’re doing.
Exactly my point. The thread was about polar bears. The word cunt was there. In 12 posts, you decided that none of us hypocritical liberals was going to chastise the OP for sexism, and then used that as a springboard to make assumptions about all liberals. It’s par for the course for you but it’s not particularly a fair or warranted response to the thread.
Some of us are used to it. I’ve had the word directed at me several times on this board, by men and women, and occasionally IRL. At no point in time did anyone ever mention sexism or fly to my defense on their white charger. I don’t expect you to believe me, but… this is not a liberal v. conservative culture war issue. People of all ideologies use the word. Go ahead, call Michelle Obama a cunt, if it blows your skirt up for ya. You’re not going to offend me, only show the world something about yourself.
I say the word is in wide use on the left and on the right. Making this yet another partisan issue in your culture war is a rather blinkered approach.
I know. Sometimes it seems like people just look for things to be offended about.
Oh dear, I’ve done it again, haven’t I? Please forgive me. I assure you I meant not the slightest offense.