Is there a reason why the first term came to be used almost exclusively and the other not at all?
It’s not the only maternal-oriented insult. Try asking any Glaswegian about ‘ya maw’.
There were father-rapers on the Group W bench.
But that attack on the mother is what makes it so much an insult.
Properly speaking, you cannot fuck a man. You can bugger them, of course. But you cannot insert a penis into them for the purpose of copulation.
But then you still have the problem of only using motherfucker against males. Fatherfucker could be used as an insult to women.
Motherfucker rolls off the tongue effortlessly and is great in the heat of a fight. Fatherfucker rolls off with the grace of an anchor. Try it sometime!
Since little boys in the late 1800’s would taunt each other perhaps more than little girls, it was not unusual to insult another’s mother. A common turn of phrase by 1900 was “your mother.”
It would only be natural for older boys to take it to the next level.
Right, but so many of us just keep on trying.
Could it be in reference to Oedipus, Rex?
Boils down to the horror of insecurity about paternity issues, I’d suppose.
Well, I sometimes call people a cork-socking fathermucker, to avoid cursing.
Personally, I think you can’t beat the musicality of Unclefucker!!
In answer to the OP, its because throughout history swearing was something men did to other men. Women swearing at all or men swearing at women was simply not acceptable behavior. And because homosexuality was considered a more unspeakable act than even incest.
I like grannyjazzer.
I always thought it was something to do with Mother’s being the maternal, caring, nurturing parent who didn’t engage in sexual activities (aside from the conception of the child) and therefore someone who went around shagging a mother was the most depraved person in existance…
SOB, not SODog
Heh. That is an invention of the writers for South Park, right? Or is that some kind of actually extant Canadian obscenity promoted through “Terrance & Phillip”?
Sometimes I make use of this reference by saying of someone that he “won’t eat or sleep or mow the lawn”. It seems you have to be a certain age or younger to get that reference 
For those not clued in to RealityChuck’s reference:
Mothers are the life givers, the ones who hold you when you cry, the warm breast to feed you, your first defense against the horrors of the world. Mom, apple pie…the mother of us all…the motherland…etc etc etc…So naturally one who “fucks” that is the most heinous of offenders and the lowest of the low. Father… well, he’s the guy that smoked cigarettes in the lobby while you were being born. At least that’s what I was told.
is there an echo in here?
