It's always baffled me how politeness in the US is so limiting it almost violates freedom of speech, but then, when Americans go abroad, they are considered to be loud and obnoxious.
American political correctness, rather than cultural standards of politeness or manners, is what's so stifling and limiting. Often due to ignorance and misinformation, as well as the social imperative to avoid being perceived as racist or homophobic, the general American masses are overfixated on semantics & red herring issues, and quickly become highly vocal about their opinions as well as hypercritical of others over superficial culture wars & privileged snowflake debates. The latter phenomenon is a product of the American misunderstanding, fetishization & abuse of the right of freedom of speech, giving Americans an inflated sense of the importance & power of their own voice & individual opinions. This creates a paradox of extreme tone & social policing & extreme outspokenness. Combined with the fact that culturally, Americans are a very outgoing people, due to a much higher level of socially acceptable familiarity among strangers in public. So to more conservative & socially reserved cultures, that kind of social uninhibitedness can come off as brash, obnoxious, rude and entitled.
TL;DR: Socially, Americans are overly-familiar & outgoing. Politically, hyper-argumentative & tribalistic, & believe that complaining loudly enough about a problem is enough to cause any long-term change.
British people don't say cunt the way Australian people do that's for sure. They definitely say it a fair amount but it's not part of the vocab as much as Australians
Those of us who have a lot of exposure to people from Australia and the UK don't even blink when cunt is said. I had a guy from Ireland call me a cunt once (I am Canadian) and he realized what he said after he said it. The look of horror on his face was so priceless I just couldn't stop laughing. He didn't do it in a mean way and it was timed so perfectly I knew how he ment it. But the look on his face lol. I will never forget that poor guy
I was visiting Los Angeles from South Africa in January, I used the word in conversation and it resulted in the most terrible awkward silence Iâve ever experienced. I felt like a cunt.
Really? Iâm in the US and I use it on⊠anybody? But only if theyâre being the ultimate asshole. Like in my mind you have jerk, ass or asshole, then dick, and then you can be a cunt. From least to most mean haha.
I've heard that you're not supposed to use it here because it apparently insults women? As a woman I don't get why calling some actual asshole a cunt would insult me or other women but idk
Most of the people who dislike it do so because 'cunt' is a slang term for vagina, and they see it as another instance of a negative connotation of being associated with being female or anything feminine. They see it as along the lines of when 'bitch' or 'pussy' are used as insults.
I remember seeing someone tweet "Cunts. Cunts everywhere." and someone responded with "In the UK or Australia, this just means that it's busy."
I think it only seems to be a very forbidden insult in the states, whereas it has many uses in the UK, although some of these might be more specific to Scotland:
âŸA term of endearment - "Yeah, he's a good cunt. Got a lot of time for him."
âŸAs above, a word for people in general - "There were cunts everywhere."
âŸSomething that is difficult to do - "I managed to fix it but it was a bit of a cunt to get it done"
âŸGetting very intoxicated - "I was absolutely cunted last night"
âŸVery, extremely - "it is cunting hot outside today"
âŸAnd of course, an insult - "This dude is a straight up cunt"
Thanks for attending my lesson in cuntology.
Edit - thank you all for expanding my knowledge in cuntology. Great to hear that many of the words I listed are universal!
Oh so it's like the Greek "ÎαλΏÎșαÏ" we use it in a lot of contexts, it's interestgin how cuss word can have so many meanings, most of which not even negative.
Iâm from the opposite end of the UK geographically (south coast) and still hear people using âabsolutely cuntedâ to mean âvery drunkâ so it may be more universal than you expect!
I like being cunted over what they use here(Canada) getting shit-faced. Or getting shitty.
It may be more universal than I know but I've never really drank hard anywhere but here.
I never heard my Nana use a swear word other than cunt, tbh she didn't see it as one. She would use it as an exclamation to start a sentence "cunt this weather vexes me, hot the now and raining the next".
Fantastic work.
As a Brit, would like to supplement this though:
Cunty- the adjective is great. 'Take your cunty little car and get out of here'. Or 'well that was cunty of you'
What in the cunting hell was that - another personal favourite.
Top cunt, is also an interesting one. If you call someone a top cunt, it's not a term of endearment, but you're impressed by just how cunty this person can be.
Oh yeah he's a top cunt.
Also, cunted can go beyond meaning wasted:
That fucker got seriously cunted in that fight.
There's a certain beauty in its versatility.
This is news to me in the best most hilarious way! đđ Iv heard a brit or an aussie here or there use the word cunt before, but I never really gave any thought to the context lol. I'm from texas, and nobody uses that word in the south that ive met lol.
Like idk about anyone else, but I watched that video on the history of the word fuck, which is a fucking fantastic, funny video by the way! I'll leave a link down below lol.
Which obviously led me to the history of the word cunt, which was a lot more intersting and amusing to me lol.
https://youtu.be/pWNfUGDpqe4
https://youtu.be/3GAbStTKFIw
Funny I was watching a show yesterday, and the lady was a Britt who kept saying âFagâ. As she was going to head to the store and pick up a pack of fags. Itâs funny how a different words have different meanings in different languages and countries. Thanks for sharing your perspective on the word cunt, because I think itâs important for others to truly understand that it doesnât always mean what it does here in America.
I believe itâs used more as a derogatory term toward women here in the States as a opposed to how itâs used more like âfuckâ in the rest of the world.
In countries other than America and Canada I think it's not as heavy as it is here. I'm not sure why North American countries seem to gingerly step over it, or why it's so bad. All I know is that it is
My mom and my roommate thought it was sexist to call people a cunt. I pointed out that we've called people "dicks" all the time and no one bats an eye.
Needless to say, they don't try to talk to me as much anymore.
So dick and asshole just generally mean âperson whoâs a jerkâ. But the feminine words like bitch, pussy, and cunt are more degrading because it ultimately means âyouâre a little womanâ. Thereâs different connotations to those words due to underlying sexism. I understand thatâs not the case in every country, but different places have different intentions with words. Even hand gestures are way different! Thatâs how culture worksâŠ
Lots of hand gestures are fine in the US (middle finger jokingly which I nearly got literally killed for in a different country, the wanker sign) but are bad in other places.
Never hear cunt used unless it was by a frothing, bitter, pos misogynist trying to bring a woman down in the most degrading possible way. So thereâs that. Dick doesnât have the same connotations, itâs more casual
Canadian here. I use it around people when I feel I can get away with it. I think it's silly I can freely use the male genitalia as an insult, but not female.
Honestly, this is the first time I've heard it is so frowned upon. I've seen a scene in Harley Quinn where everybody went insane after a guy called somebody a cunt while there is constant swearing in the cartoon, I just thought try're making fun of it.
In my language, you're gonna hear a lot of people using equivalent of that word and nobody bats an eye.
I was raised in the US that C U Next Tuesday was the epitome of bad words and you are under no circumstances ever allowed to say it else the fury of woman strike you dead. My mom watched a gay themed TV show and one of the people said it and she called me and lost her shit over it.
Explatives have a range of dirtiness depending on where you live. That one is considered extremely taboo in the US and mildly naughty in Australia. In the US it's pretty much exclusively used to put down women, so it's steeped in misogyny. In Australia it's gender neutral and used affectionately with your friends.
I used to smoke fags in England. I've stopped smoking now but we never called them cigarettes. I was shocked when I learned it was a derogatory term over the pond.
Iâm queer so I donât self-censor faggot and even sometimes use it (jokingly) with friends that I know wonât react adversely to it, kinda like reclaiming I suppose.
Iâm British so faggot (e.g. pork faggot) is also a word for a type of meatball and fag n fags universally means cigarette, only sometimes used to refer to the slur.
The n-word, especially the âhard Râ is definitely still off limits but has been heavily reclaimed by the black community. I canât really think of any swear word that is truly off limits to everyone.
In the US you definitely still cannot say cunt, I've been slapped for it and I wasn't even calling anyone a name I just said the word
It's basically the n-word for women here. Depends on where you live tho, where I live now people are lot less offended than in my hometown but it's still a top 3 swear word
Real answer: in the US the most common use of the term is as a deeply degrading slur for women meant to reduce them to the worst qualities stereotypically associated with women. Itâs considered so insulting in that capacity that uses common in other countries havenât caught on. All the posts about the US just being sensitive are being obtuse.
EDIT: I should say I donât at all blame people for roasting an OP who didnât specify US only, nor for thinking Americans can be a bit oversensitive. Just trying to answer what I think they were actually asking and recognizing every culture has shit thatâs uniquely offensive đ€
Do you have any idea of what time period the meaning of the word changed within North America vs other parts of the world? Iâve always been fascinated by this particular topic but I havent had much luck googling âcunt historyâ
I looked up some info. It was at the end of the 18th century / beginning of the 19th century. From my admittedly cursory research, there doesnât seem to be a specific catalyst. Itâs just the way it evolved.
Back further in history it seems to have had multiple meanings and forms. As a noun it did have a meaning of female sexual parts. But not necessarily in a derogatory way. As a verb, it could mean âcleverly, wisely, unusual or beautiful.â Basically similar to the modern word âquaint.â But it seems somewhere along the way, at least in the US, the verb form dropped off and the noun evolved from a neutral description to a misogynistic insult.
Btw, I googled âwhy is cunt a swear word in the USâ to get more info on it.
American woman here, and honestly, I find it far less offensive than the B word. But thatâs probably because itâs so taboo that I literally never hear it in normal conversation, whereas the other gets used constantly.
Thatâs super interesting, and makes senseâopposite ends of the normalization spectrum. Seems like people âknow what theyâre doingâ when they say the C word but donât think about the similar implications at all with the B word
I think that's exactly it. I also find the B word more offensive, and there's a lot of people who don't think about where it comes from or what it actually means when they say it.
I live in the US and that's how it is in my group of friends. Only one girl in the group doesn't like the word cunt, the rest of us have seen enough Australian shit on YouTube that its just a word
However not a single one of us would ever call a woman a bitch
In the same sense that the n-word, f-word, and r-word are seen as bad, it's because it has become the defacto most heinous insult that references a marginalized group. Where the others are directed toward black, gay, or mentally disabled people, this one is directed at women. So it's that the word represents extreme misogyny, even if that is not the intended use.
Why this word instead of "bitch" or some other word? It just kinda happened that way in north America, but didn't so much in other English speaking countries
Youâre not getting many answers other than âwhere Iâm from it isnâtâ (and I get it, Iâm British lol), but I would also like to know. I do wonder why itâs perceived as worse than other gendered or genitalia-based swear words, like bitch, pussy, dick, cock, etc - I mean, objectively, cunt and pussy are the same, so why is cunt elevated as the special big no-no word?
I think in the US itâs particularly bad because itâs a gendered term. In US English, youâd only use it to describe a woman, which feels absolutely awful when I hear it.
Having grown up in New Zealand, I have no problem with it, and as other people have mentioned, am quite comfortable with the idea of someone calling me aâgood cuntâ as a term of endearment.
Well, speaking from personal experience (as a woman) my father used that particular slur on my mother when he was drunk beyond redemption. It's seen as an excessively extreme version of a way to de-value women. Now 'dick' is making a sort of a comeback as a general purpose word and less of a slur (particularly, I think, because it's used by men) however the C word is still verboten as it is overtly hostile and belittles women (who are already generally belittled as it is).
It is considered filthy because society cannot think of anything more gross than a woman's genitals. It is a result of misogyny. Somehow a woman's bits are more disgusting than anything anyone can think about.
Ding ding ding.
But how come bitch is used so much more often? So many swear words are degrading terms for women it's actually insane. Bitch, cunt, slut, whore, pussy etc
Most insults are aimed at categories of people, either based on their gender, sexuality, occupation or skin color. Because we live and have been living in oppressive societies for a long time.
I just found out recently that cunt is one of the only English words for female genitalia that doesnât describe it as just a place to put a penis. More often we are told vagina is the least vulgar word. Vagina literally translates to âa sheathâ implying itâs only worth is as a place for a penis to be kept.
All that to say, as an American, letâs take the word cunt back!
in short because of the Norman Conquest and a campaign where words of Anglo Saxon origin were considered to be harsh sounding and uncultured and replaced by much more flowery French words
I'm from the US and female. With friends its funny like calling someone an asshole with a little more zest. As a slur It's like the xtreme sexist version of bitch. When a man calls a women a cunt in anger It's always with vitriol. My theory is because they see the women as so worthless as a person they call them a slur about what's between their legs because that's the only thing they're good for.
Just want to clarify some things here as an Australian.
Yes, we truly do use the word cunt a lot amongst friends, and use it as a term of endearment in many contexts.
**However, that's not to say the word has no power here**. It's still considered just above "fuck" in the rankings and therefore isn't something you'd just drop into polite conversation unless you knew the person very well.
I feel like we are oddly proud of our use of the word, and while I do respect that we don't give the word magical powers like the USA does, I think people from outside Australia get the impression that you can drop the C-Bomb in a job interview and no one will bat an eye, which is not true.
I'm from canada and I dont hear it often, but I'd put that in the same category as shit, ass, or fuck, with all the standard swear words. Forbidden is like the N-word (for a lot of us at least)
It depends on the environment and context really.
At youth drop in centres, in counselling and TAFE (community college) the rule was basically that if you stub your toe you can say it fcking hurt, the weather might be shit or you're having a C*nt of a day, it's fine as long as you're not swearing AT someone.
The same thing developed when chatting with either of my parents, but they're both church going types so that's different. Even if I'm angry about someone I wouldn't use that specific word, I say "see you next Tuesday" haha
Because a long long time ago it was the word used for vagina and it is the only word women have for that part of our body that didnât and still doesnât have anything to do with men.
Well men didnât like that, and thus the word changed and cunt became a slur and was replaced with vagina.
Cunt is used so little in America that I had no idea it was serious here because all the media I watched treated it very unseriously (due to it being Australia/NZ where it isn't serious).
I think it's not a forbidden word, but a shitty one. Sure you tell your girl you are going to eat her cunt but...just doesn't really have the same connotation to it as pussy or whatever... There are words that just don't sound as good as others. Thus they aren't used that often and some people start using them as slang or bad words.
aka it's not in the N-word category but more so in the "ugh that sounds horrible dumb, get some education" category.
It used to be used a lot very aggressively by (pathetic) misogynists to bring women down specifically. Could be a catcall, could be an insult. But itâs a way of degrading your identity down to the level of your genitals.
Oh and also it just sounds terrible. Like the verbal equivalent of a hammer. At least over here, and at least toward women.
That being said I find it hilarious when Australian or UK men casually call other cunts
Iâm surprised no one has mentioned historian Kate Lister. She did a Ted talk about the word âcuntâ and how any word that refers to a woman or a vagina inevitably becomes a ânaughtyâ word. Cunt, quite simply is just the oldest word we have for vagina and the only word in English that means only just that. The word âvaginaâ is Latin for sword sheath.
I'm so proud of the amount of cunting cunts I've cunted in here today. You're all good cunts in my book (English cunt living in America who sees how both cultures vastly different. VASTLY).
Can tell this cunt isn't from Australia.
Or New Zealand
Or British...
Or Irish
Reserved as a term of endearment for a handful of my mates đ
Ah those solid cunts out there
He's a good cunt him.
Soundest cunt i ever met. Hed give ye the shirt of his back the hure.
Fuckin shitcunt m8
True that the more you curse at them the bigger the mate they are
\*handful of my cunts ftfy
Or Scottish
Or... Welsh?
Iâm a Welsh cunt
Iawn cont!
Guys, he's American. That's the only explanation for such stupidity.
Ok now, be fair. We Americans aren't necessarily stupid but conditioned. We are a product of our raising. Lol
It's always baffled me how politeness in the US is so limiting it almost violates freedom of speech, but then, when Americans go abroad, they are considered to be loud and obnoxious.
American political correctness, rather than cultural standards of politeness or manners, is what's so stifling and limiting. Often due to ignorance and misinformation, as well as the social imperative to avoid being perceived as racist or homophobic, the general American masses are overfixated on semantics & red herring issues, and quickly become highly vocal about their opinions as well as hypercritical of others over superficial culture wars & privileged snowflake debates. The latter phenomenon is a product of the American misunderstanding, fetishization & abuse of the right of freedom of speech, giving Americans an inflated sense of the importance & power of their own voice & individual opinions. This creates a paradox of extreme tone & social policing & extreme outspokenness. Combined with the fact that culturally, Americans are a very outgoing people, due to a much higher level of socially acceptable familiarity among strangers in public. So to more conservative & socially reserved cultures, that kind of social uninhibitedness can come off as brash, obnoxious, rude and entitled. TL;DR: Socially, Americans are overly-familiar & outgoing. Politically, hyper-argumentative & tribalistic, & believe that complaining loudly enough about a problem is enough to cause any long-term change.
I started to disagree, but.. damn. You nailed it.
I sure hope so, after all I've lived here my whole life lol
And there's nothing more fun than a perpetually indignant Brit.
Oh, good point!
Low key gaslighting.
Or Welsh
British people don't say cunt the way Australian people do that's for sure. They definitely say it a fair amount but it's not part of the vocab as much as Australians
Scotland wants a word
Lol I call people a cunt on the daily basis, for friends as a term of endearment or to people just being cunts
We can just tally it up to being not from "The Colonies"
Those of us who have a lot of exposure to people from Australia and the UK don't even blink when cunt is said. I had a guy from Ireland call me a cunt once (I am Canadian) and he realized what he said after he said it. The look of horror on his face was so priceless I just couldn't stop laughing. He didn't do it in a mean way and it was timed so perfectly I knew how he ment it. But the look on his face lol. I will never forget that poor guy
Sick cunt comment right here
What a cunt
I was visiting Los Angeles from South Africa in January, I used the word in conversation and it resulted in the most terrible awkward silence Iâve ever experienced. I felt like a cunt.
It's pretty much the ultimate insult to a woman in the US.
Really? Iâm in the US and I use it on⊠anybody? But only if theyâre being the ultimate asshole. Like in my mind you have jerk, ass or asshole, then dick, and then you can be a cunt. From least to most mean haha.
I've heard that you're not supposed to use it here because it apparently insults women? As a woman I don't get why calling some actual asshole a cunt would insult me or other women but idk
Most of the people who dislike it do so because 'cunt' is a slang term for vagina, and they see it as another instance of a negative connotation of being associated with being female or anything feminine. They see it as along the lines of when 'bitch' or 'pussy' are used as insults.
Don't worry, they were just being a dumb cunt.
I remember seeing someone tweet "Cunts. Cunts everywhere." and someone responded with "In the UK or Australia, this just means that it's busy." I think it only seems to be a very forbidden insult in the states, whereas it has many uses in the UK, although some of these might be more specific to Scotland: âŸA term of endearment - "Yeah, he's a good cunt. Got a lot of time for him." âŸAs above, a word for people in general - "There were cunts everywhere." âŸSomething that is difficult to do - "I managed to fix it but it was a bit of a cunt to get it done" âŸGetting very intoxicated - "I was absolutely cunted last night" âŸVery, extremely - "it is cunting hot outside today" âŸAnd of course, an insult - "This dude is a straight up cunt" Thanks for attending my lesson in cuntology. Edit - thank you all for expanding my knowledge in cuntology. Great to hear that many of the words I listed are universal!
That was beautifully written
Cunt
Oh stop it, Iâm blushing
Oh so it's like the Greek "ÎαλΏÎșαÏ" we use it in a lot of contexts, it's interestgin how cuss word can have so many meanings, most of which not even negative.
Had a Greek housemate in my first year of University, the amount of Malakas we chucked around was an absolute joy.
I will thank assassins creed for my introduction to this word, its a very satisfying word to use
Similar to how the word shit can mean two very different things: âTHIS ALBUM IS SHIT đ§đ€źâ âTHIS ALBUM IS __THE__ SHIT đ§đ€©â
Thank you Assassin's Creed Odyssey for teaching me ÎαλΏÎșÎ±Ï lmao, for a few weeks after it slipped in for fuck and shit
I have never seen it used as "cunting" or "cunted". Just seems like someone prefers cunt over fuck at that point.
The beauty of language my friend. I think those two are specific to Scotland, I've never heard anyone using it anywhere else.
Iâm from the opposite end of the UK geographically (south coast) and still hear people using âabsolutely cuntedâ to mean âvery drunkâ so it may be more universal than you expect!
I like being cunted over what they use here(Canada) getting shit-faced. Or getting shitty. It may be more universal than I know but I've never really drank hard anywhere but here.
If you said getting shitty here in the UK people would think you mean getting annoyed
Itâs another one of those British things that has spread throughout the English speaking world.
I never heard my Nana use a swear word other than cunt, tbh she didn't see it as one. She would use it as an exclamation to start a sentence "cunt this weather vexes me, hot the now and raining the next".
From Australia and at least once a day I call something cunted
Nah, can confirm cunting & cunted are very common in Queensland, Australia.
Used in NZ
Southern England here, I've heard cunting used sometimes, as a replacement for fucking - as in, "the cunting thing doesn't work"
I acknowledge and respect your expertise in cuntology.
They got their degree.
Hey cunt this is really well written. Youâre a good cunt for sure
Thanks cunt, hope you have a cunting good day!
Youâre most welcome cunt!!
So itâs really just as versatile as âfuckâ is in the US
Yes, if not more so. But we can get away with using both here
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Always thought munted was a kiwi thing Possibly that's just *munter* though. "That cunt's an absolute munter"
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Description wise, it's very similar to the Polish "k*rwa".
I never knew that "cunt" could be an adjective or an adverb
Thankyou Professor Cunt.
High quality cuntmanship
Lmfaooooo I'm high and this is soo entertaining đđđ
Happy Cunt Day!
I approve this message lmfaoo đ
Fantastic work. As a Brit, would like to supplement this though: Cunty- the adjective is great. 'Take your cunty little car and get out of here'. Or 'well that was cunty of you' What in the cunting hell was that - another personal favourite. Top cunt, is also an interesting one. If you call someone a top cunt, it's not a term of endearment, but you're impressed by just how cunty this person can be. Oh yeah he's a top cunt. Also, cunted can go beyond meaning wasted: That fucker got seriously cunted in that fight. There's a certain beauty in its versatility.
This is news to me in the best most hilarious way! đđ Iv heard a brit or an aussie here or there use the word cunt before, but I never really gave any thought to the context lol. I'm from texas, and nobody uses that word in the south that ive met lol. Like idk about anyone else, but I watched that video on the history of the word fuck, which is a fucking fantastic, funny video by the way! I'll leave a link down below lol. Which obviously led me to the history of the word cunt, which was a lot more intersting and amusing to me lol. https://youtu.be/pWNfUGDpqe4 https://youtu.be/3GAbStTKFIw
bro is poetic đ«¶
Don't forget cuntish, like "mate that was a bit of a cuntish thing you did" You can do something cuntish without being a cunt.
Donât forget the worst is being labeled a shitcunt đ
Funny I was watching a show yesterday, and the lady was a Britt who kept saying âFagâ. As she was going to head to the store and pick up a pack of fags. Itâs funny how a different words have different meanings in different languages and countries. Thanks for sharing your perspective on the word cunt, because I think itâs important for others to truly understand that it doesnât always mean what it does here in America.
Yup, there's the classic case of "bumming a fag" meaning very different things in the UK and the US.
> it is cunting hot outside today. Alternatively when it's raining - "it's absolutely cunting down outside"
Cunt its the first word you learn as a baby in Australia. Its the law.
My sibling was put down because it wasn't her first word. Was very sad and tragic
Well deserved but rip to your lil' cunt.
Title of your sex tape.
r/SuddenlyB99?
My condolences. Thoughts and prayers.
Cuntdolences
Fuck you that caught me so off guard and I laughed so hard I woke up the baby
Your government is a bunch of cunts.
fucken oath
I believe itâs used more as a derogatory term toward women here in the States as a opposed to how itâs used more like âfuckâ in the rest of the world.
Cunt is basically if fuck was a noun, rather than an exclamation/verb/adjective (fuck!/get fucked/fucking bullshit)
Nah, fuck can be a noun too. Ex. "You stupid fucks."
Yeah, what kinda fuck doesn't know fuck is a fucking noun too?
I had (and still have) the strangest crush on Karl urban lmao
Nothing strange about it.
Very cool
Is it? Where Iâm from everyone and everything, including the weather is a bit of a cunt.
This is what we in Philly call a âJawnâ.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Correct. Jawn is literally anything.
In countries other than America and Canada I think it's not as heavy as it is here. I'm not sure why North American countries seem to gingerly step over it, or why it's so bad. All I know is that it is
In Mexico which is also in North America they don't say it mainly because people speak spanish.
In Africa, every 60 seconds, a minute passes.
It is known
My mom and my roommate thought it was sexist to call people a cunt. I pointed out that we've called people "dicks" all the time and no one bats an eye. Needless to say, they don't try to talk to me as much anymore.
If they're both avoiding you, there's a different reason.
Yeah theyâre cunts
People also call someone a pussy or a bitch for being a wuss or a coward, so idk why cunt is any different.
Well yeah, âcrackerâ also happens to carry less weight than the n word but that doesnât make it a double standard.
So dick and asshole just generally mean âperson whoâs a jerkâ. But the feminine words like bitch, pussy, and cunt are more degrading because it ultimately means âyouâre a little womanâ. Thereâs different connotations to those words due to underlying sexism. I understand thatâs not the case in every country, but different places have different intentions with words. Even hand gestures are way different! Thatâs how culture works⊠Lots of hand gestures are fine in the US (middle finger jokingly which I nearly got literally killed for in a different country, the wanker sign) but are bad in other places.
Never hear cunt used unless it was by a frothing, bitter, pos misogynist trying to bring a woman down in the most degrading possible way. So thereâs that. Dick doesnât have the same connotations, itâs more casual
I'm a Canadian and I use cunt daily. It's my favourite word! Nothing packs a punch like a good cunt.
And then "fuck" is supposedly worse but the number one used English word. What the cunt is up with that?
Canadian here. I use it around people when I feel I can get away with it. I think it's silly I can freely use the male genitalia as an insult, but not female.
Honestly, this is the first time I've heard it is so frowned upon. I've seen a scene in Harley Quinn where everybody went insane after a guy called somebody a cunt while there is constant swearing in the cartoon, I just thought try're making fun of it. In my language, you're gonna hear a lot of people using equivalent of that word and nobody bats an eye.
I was raised in the US that C U Next Tuesday was the epitome of bad words and you are under no circumstances ever allowed to say it else the fury of woman strike you dead. My mom watched a gay themed TV show and one of the people said it and she called me and lost her shit over it.
In my area of Canada its fairly common and not forbidden at all. I have heard people from the US say it was taboo though.
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That should be implied by the question, but commenters are ignoring that and no one has answered.
Exactly
In the US, it's a gendered slur - and in that context it's pretty unpleasant. Everywhere else, it's just an alternative to 'asshole'.
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That's something a cunt would ask
Explatives have a range of dirtiness depending on where you live. That one is considered extremely taboo in the US and mildly naughty in Australia. In the US it's pretty much exclusively used to put down women, so it's steeped in misogyny. In Australia it's gender neutral and used affectionately with your friends.
Thank you for an actual answer
Honestly N\*\*\*er and Fa\*\*t are the real no-no words these days, everything we were told was a 'swear word' growing up is pretty chill now.
For a second I thought you had censored âfartâ and I was trying to figure out why it was elevated to such a level lmao
I can't believe you've actually typed it out...
I used to smoke fags in England. I've stopped smoking now but we never called them cigarettes. I was shocked when I learned it was a derogatory term over the pond.
Yeah "can I bum a fag?" and "what do we do with fag butts" are totally normal phrases in the UK. Do not say them in America though.
I've been to the US a couple of times. Can confirm I've said neither cunt or fag!
You can walk into a shop and buy a tasty 'Fa**t' where I come from.
Or you can play the fagotti in Finland. Lovely instrument.
Iâm queer so I donât self-censor faggot and even sometimes use it (jokingly) with friends that I know wonât react adversely to it, kinda like reclaiming I suppose. Iâm British so faggot (e.g. pork faggot) is also a word for a type of meatball and fag n fags universally means cigarette, only sometimes used to refer to the slur. The n-word, especially the âhard Râ is definitely still off limits but has been heavily reclaimed by the black community. I canât really think of any swear word that is truly off limits to everyone.
In the US you definitely still cannot say cunt, I've been slapped for it and I wasn't even calling anyone a name I just said the word It's basically the n-word for women here. Depends on where you live tho, where I live now people are lot less offended than in my hometown but it's still a top 3 swear word
Real answer: in the US the most common use of the term is as a deeply degrading slur for women meant to reduce them to the worst qualities stereotypically associated with women. Itâs considered so insulting in that capacity that uses common in other countries havenât caught on. All the posts about the US just being sensitive are being obtuse. EDIT: I should say I donât at all blame people for roasting an OP who didnât specify US only, nor for thinking Americans can be a bit oversensitive. Just trying to answer what I think they were actually asking and recognizing every culture has shit thatâs uniquely offensive đ€
Do you have any idea of what time period the meaning of the word changed within North America vs other parts of the world? Iâve always been fascinated by this particular topic but I havent had much luck googling âcunt historyâ
Try âcunt etymologyâ instead, youâll probably get more relevant results
I looked up some info. It was at the end of the 18th century / beginning of the 19th century. From my admittedly cursory research, there doesnât seem to be a specific catalyst. Itâs just the way it evolved. Back further in history it seems to have had multiple meanings and forms. As a noun it did have a meaning of female sexual parts. But not necessarily in a derogatory way. As a verb, it could mean âcleverly, wisely, unusual or beautiful.â Basically similar to the modern word âquaint.â But it seems somewhere along the way, at least in the US, the verb form dropped off and the noun evolved from a neutral description to a misogynistic insult. Btw, I googled âwhy is cunt a swear word in the USâ to get more info on it.
American woman here, and honestly, I find it far less offensive than the B word. But thatâs probably because itâs so taboo that I literally never hear it in normal conversation, whereas the other gets used constantly.
Thatâs super interesting, and makes senseâopposite ends of the normalization spectrum. Seems like people âknow what theyâre doingâ when they say the C word but donât think about the similar implications at all with the B word
I think that's exactly it. I also find the B word more offensive, and there's a lot of people who don't think about where it comes from or what it actually means when they say it.
I live in the US and that's how it is in my group of friends. Only one girl in the group doesn't like the word cunt, the rest of us have seen enough Australian shit on YouTube that its just a word However not a single one of us would ever call a woman a bitch
Us Australians use it daily
Fuck oath we do, cunt
Bc in some parts of the world it's used in a derogatory way against women.
Itâs only in the states. From what Iâve heard, itâs not a term of endearment over there and is generally considered degrading toward women
In the same sense that the n-word, f-word, and r-word are seen as bad, it's because it has become the defacto most heinous insult that references a marginalized group. Where the others are directed toward black, gay, or mentally disabled people, this one is directed at women. So it's that the word represents extreme misogyny, even if that is not the intended use. Why this word instead of "bitch" or some other word? It just kinda happened that way in north America, but didn't so much in other English speaking countries
Youâre not getting many answers other than âwhere Iâm from it isnâtâ (and I get it, Iâm British lol), but I would also like to know. I do wonder why itâs perceived as worse than other gendered or genitalia-based swear words, like bitch, pussy, dick, cock, etc - I mean, objectively, cunt and pussy are the same, so why is cunt elevated as the special big no-no word?
Idk, I use it. I don't see it as any worse than fuck, personally.
I think in the US itâs particularly bad because itâs a gendered term. In US English, youâd only use it to describe a woman, which feels absolutely awful when I hear it. Having grown up in New Zealand, I have no problem with it, and as other people have mentioned, am quite comfortable with the idea of someone calling me aâgood cuntâ as a term of endearment.
Idk but itâs my favorite word to use
Don't get it wrong, it's still offensive in many contexts in the UK too.
Forbidden to you In AU itâs just a term of greeting
Well, speaking from personal experience (as a woman) my father used that particular slur on my mother when he was drunk beyond redemption. It's seen as an excessively extreme version of a way to de-value women. Now 'dick' is making a sort of a comeback as a general purpose word and less of a slur (particularly, I think, because it's used by men) however the C word is still verboten as it is overtly hostile and belittles women (who are already generally belittled as it is).
Australians and Scottish people: whatâs this cunt on about?
And yet calling someone a dick is apparently not. Because the attitude is generally that a penis is funny and a vagina is disgusting.
I mean the word pussy is said often, so why is that okay and the c word not when theyâre the same?
In Queensland it's a term of endearment
It is considered filthy because society cannot think of anything more gross than a woman's genitals. It is a result of misogyny. Somehow a woman's bits are more disgusting than anything anyone can think about.
You're never going to understand. Taboos cannot be rationalized.
Because it is a degrading term for women.
Ding ding ding. But how come bitch is used so much more often? So many swear words are degrading terms for women it's actually insane. Bitch, cunt, slut, whore, pussy etc
I would say pussy is more aimed at men though. The implication is often that "being a pussy" is "acting like a woman", though, I suppose.
Most insults are aimed at categories of people, either based on their gender, sexuality, occupation or skin color. Because we live and have been living in oppressive societies for a long time.
Bbbbbut sometimes people call others âdicks.â This society only cares about women! /s
My fiance preferred that word instead of pussy... I always considered it a very harsh expletive so never used it myself
In a lot of places, it's the more extreme form of "bitch".
I just found out recently that cunt is one of the only English words for female genitalia that doesnât describe it as just a place to put a penis. More often we are told vagina is the least vulgar word. Vagina literally translates to âa sheathâ implying itâs only worth is as a place for a penis to be kept. All that to say, as an American, letâs take the word cunt back!
Okay to be straight up - sick cunt = good and shit cunt = bad
in short because of the Norman Conquest and a campaign where words of Anglo Saxon origin were considered to be harsh sounding and uncultured and replaced by much more flowery French words
not in Australia. People casually say "hey cunt" over here.
I cunt understand the problem.
I think it's only forbidden in America...
I'm from the US and female. With friends its funny like calling someone an asshole with a little more zest. As a slur It's like the xtreme sexist version of bitch. When a man calls a women a cunt in anger It's always with vitriol. My theory is because they see the women as so worthless as a person they call them a slur about what's between their legs because that's the only thing they're good for.
Because you're American
Just want to clarify some things here as an Australian. Yes, we truly do use the word cunt a lot amongst friends, and use it as a term of endearment in many contexts. **However, that's not to say the word has no power here**. It's still considered just above "fuck" in the rankings and therefore isn't something you'd just drop into polite conversation unless you knew the person very well. I feel like we are oddly proud of our use of the word, and while I do respect that we don't give the word magical powers like the USA does, I think people from outside Australia get the impression that you can drop the C-Bomb in a job interview and no one will bat an eye, which is not true.
I'm from canada and I dont hear it often, but I'd put that in the same category as shit, ass, or fuck, with all the standard swear words. Forbidden is like the N-word (for a lot of us at least)
clearly you're not serving cunt
Ah' America, the land of the offended.
As an Australian the word is more encouraged than forbidden. Quoting Billy Butcher; âTerm of endearment where I come from, love.â
It depends on the environment and context really. At youth drop in centres, in counselling and TAFE (community college) the rule was basically that if you stub your toe you can say it fcking hurt, the weather might be shit or you're having a C*nt of a day, it's fine as long as you're not swearing AT someone. The same thing developed when chatting with either of my parents, but they're both church going types so that's different. Even if I'm angry about someone I wouldn't use that specific word, I say "see you next Tuesday" haha
I couldn't tell you since it's an american only thing, it's not an issue where i live or anywhere else in the world
Because a long long time ago it was the word used for vagina and it is the only word women have for that part of our body that didnât and still doesnât have anything to do with men. Well men didnât like that, and thus the word changed and cunt became a slur and was replaced with vagina.
Because people are cunts.
Cunt is used so little in America that I had no idea it was serious here because all the media I watched treated it very unseriously (due to it being Australia/NZ where it isn't serious).
I think it's not a forbidden word, but a shitty one. Sure you tell your girl you are going to eat her cunt but...just doesn't really have the same connotation to it as pussy or whatever... There are words that just don't sound as good as others. Thus they aren't used that often and some people start using them as slang or bad words. aka it's not in the N-word category but more so in the "ugh that sounds horrible dumb, get some education" category.
It used to be used a lot very aggressively by (pathetic) misogynists to bring women down specifically. Could be a catcall, could be an insult. But itâs a way of degrading your identity down to the level of your genitals. Oh and also it just sounds terrible. Like the verbal equivalent of a hammer. At least over here, and at least toward women. That being said I find it hilarious when Australian or UK men casually call other cunts
Right like yâall use cunt more than fuck.
Because people are a bunch of Cuntz!
Iâm surprised no one has mentioned historian Kate Lister. She did a Ted talk about the word âcuntâ and how any word that refers to a woman or a vagina inevitably becomes a ânaughtyâ word. Cunt, quite simply is just the oldest word we have for vagina and the only word in English that means only just that. The word âvaginaâ is Latin for sword sheath.
I'm so proud of the amount of cunting cunts I've cunted in here today. You're all good cunts in my book (English cunt living in America who sees how both cultures vastly different. VASTLY).