# Question on restricted language **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 4, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728 "2017-04-04T14:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/1 "2017-04-04T14:12:04Z")
I’ve read **Ed** ’s sticky in The Pit but I’m a little unclear, specifically concerning different attitudes by Americans and Brits concerning _cunt_. It is a forceful obscenity in the UK but, unlike over there, it isn’t a particularly shocking one. The question arose specifically when I posted [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=823185) in IMHO concerning First Ladies. I wrote that in the contest between Michelle Obama and Melania Trump that Michelle only lost by a hairsbreadth. I had thought of writing that she’d lost by a cunt-hair, an expression common here and particularly apt in the context I thought, but I hesitated and finally decided to opt for the safer version. My question is whether the original phrase would have brought a censure. It is tricky sometimes navigating the shoals of US/UK differences in language and I’d just like to know this for future reference. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/2 "2017-04-04T14:49:08Z")
Since you weren’t actually **referring to either person** as a cunt, I think you would have been safe. The restrictions are against calling someone a particular name, or strongly inferring that they are that term. It doesn’t restrict colorful idioms. In fact, I have used the phrase “RCH” as a measurement on this board several times without censure or comment. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/3 "2017-04-04T14:57:54Z")
According to a finish carpenter I know, “cunt hair” is an accepted unit of measure in the trade. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/4 "2017-04-04T15:10:34Z")
Speaking as a reader, it would have detracted and distracted from whatever point you were trying to make. Whether or not it’s OK by the rules, it’s such a loaded word in the U.S. that I can’t read it as just an expression. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/5 "2017-04-04T17:29:21Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Speaking as a reader, it would have detracted and distracted from whatever point you were trying to make. Whether or not it’s OK by the rules, it’s such a loaded word in the U.S. that I can’t read it as just an expression. That was in my mind when I decided to use the milder expression. I suspected it may not be against the rules as such but it might discomfit the American reader enough to turn them away from the thread. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/6 "2017-04-04T19:42:45Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > That was in my mind when I decided to use the milder expression. I suspected it may not be against the rules as such but it might discomfit the American reader enough to turn them away from the thread. Your worried about discomfitting Americans? We’ve never been comfitted in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/7 "2017-04-05T20:57:41Z")
We do like confit though. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/8 "2017-04-05T21:37:52Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I had thought of writing that she’d lost by a cunt-hair, an expression common here and particularly apt in the context I thought, but I hesitated and finally decided to opt for the safer version. I’d have used “bawhair”, personally. Feel free to culturally appropriate from your neighbours to the North, I say 😉 ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/9 "2017-04-05T22:16:15Z")
My understanding is you can’t refer to other posters as a cunt. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/10 "2017-04-05T22:22:11Z")
It seems to me, that since you are clearly aware that the language that you wanted to use, was not considered to be acceptable in all public discourse regardless of how you used it, that it makes absolutely no sense at all to bother to think further. In short, if you have to ask, then you ARE being purposely rude and/or crude, if you go ahead with it. For myself, I would like to find forums where all use of _unnecessarily crude_ speech is prohibited. Most prejudices and unfair judgments of others, is primarily carried forward through the acceptance of the use of obviously insulting terminology such as this. It isn’t the WORDS that carry the prejudice and bias forward. It is the calm ACCEPTANCE AND USE OF it which make sit clear that the people in relative power, believe that the prejudices are accurate. Instead of asking such questions, I suggest you improve your vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-restricted-language/783728/11 "2017-04-05T23:42:53Z")
> [@igor\_frankensteen](#): > > Instead of asking such questions, I suggest you improve your vocabulary. Agree. I can say “cunt” in six or seven languages!