The C-Bomb by Kip Williams
Kip Williams visits the fianl frontier of potty talk and asks "What is all the fuss about"
The C Word. The C Bomb. The See You Next Tuesday. The Constable. For some reason we just can’t bring ourselves to say that tiny little word: cunt. But all that is slowly starting to change. Take a walk around campus and you’ll find that, little by little, the final taboo of our language is beginning to creep its way into our everyday conversations. But is this really all that surprising?
30 years ago, when most of our parents were our age, the word ‘fuck’ held a similar status amongst transgressive lexicon. Today, people will drop ‘fuck’ into a sentence without thinking twice about it. So is the slow increase in the usage of the word ‘cunt’ pointing towards a future where it’s no big deal? Is cunt the new fuck?
I decided I’d take this question to the streets, or at least the next best place, to Manning Bar. Meet Kate, Daniel, Lindsay, Tina and Oli, your average table of students quietly enjoying an afternoon drink or two at their uni pub. The vibe is certainly relaxed. But when I ask them what they think of the word cunt, chilled out conversation is swiftly ditched for heated discussion. It seems everyone has an opinion.
There are those like Kate, who embrace it with vigour: “I use it all the time, but it’s all about context.” There are those like Daniel, who are users, but not abusers: “It’s not something I say frequently; only on special occasions.” And then there are those like Tina, who wince at its very mention: “I never use it. If I even tell my sister to ‘shut up’ my dad gets angry with me.”
While it immediately becomes clear that this word provokes a wide range of responses, the common thread amongst the fray is the inherent link between this word and gender. Daniel will “only call men cunts”, Lindsay thinks it’s “more vulgar when women use it” and Oli sees it as “pejorative towards women in certain contexts.”
This final point is perhaps the most interesting. For more insight on this idea, I spoke with Sass Hunt, a proud feminist. Hunt has an impressive resume when it comes to involvement with women’s issues. She has been an organiser of International Women’s Day since 2005, served on the 2007 Student Representative Council as the Women’s Officer and is currently finishing a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Gender Studies. Her attitude towards the word ‘cunt’ is direct.
“There is nothing I find more offensive as a swearword than the word ‘cunt’, not because I find it an offensive word, but because I find it extremely offensive that it is used as a swearword.
“I think any term for part of someone’s anatomy that gets used as a swearword or an insult really affects the way that that person sees that part of their anatomy. If your cunt is used as an insult and [seen as] something disgusting, you’re not going to feel good about yourself and you’re not going to have a lot of sexual self esteem.”
It’s an interesting concept – that by associating human anatomy with the act of demeaning someone, we negatively impact upon the way people feel about their body. It may sound like a long bow to draw, but this isn’t too far off the mark.
If we look a little closer, there are certainly parallels between this notion and how other swearwords and put downs affect how society views itself. Take the word ‘gay’, for example. Today, ‘gay’ is most commonly used in substitute for swearwords like ‘shit’ or ‘crap’. Where someone once might have said ‘that’s so shit’ to judge something as being bad, today they will say ‘that’s so gay’.
There’s also the homophobic use of the word as an emasculating insult.
Applying Hunt’s theory on the use of ‘cunt’ as a swearword, we can see that the word ‘gay’, when employed as either a put down or a descriptor of something bad, creates a clear link between homosexuality and negativity.
I put this idea to the merry table of Manning drinkers and am immediately met with an impassioned response.
“I am the last one to stop someone from swearing,” says Daniel, “I just don’t like being that person, but I will not tolerate the word ‘gay’ being used in a negative sense, I just cannot stand it. There is no justification for using that word [negatively]. It is a word I use to identify a part of myself and it is intrinsically linked to a significant part of my identity and taking that and using it in a negative way is just so contradictory to my sense of being, that I just can’t tolerate it.”
“The word ‘gay’ doesn’t have the same direct meaning as it once did,” says Kate, “but it still holds the same negative connotations that stem from its original homophobic use.”
‘Gay’, ‘Cunt’, ‘Fuck’, ‘Dickhead’; it seems that our swearwords are fundamentally connected to either human sexuality or physicality. Even a simple swearword like ‘shit’ is a reference to defecation.Indeed, one of Australia’s favourite swearwords ‘bugger’ is a reference to sodomy.
In fact, the more you begin to pick apart swearwords, the more it becomes apparent that the act of swearing is intrinsically linked to deep-seated feelings of shame; shame for the body, shame for its functions and shame for its sexual urges. Thus, to swear is to link the target of your fury with the sense of shame your chosen word holds.
Hunt argues that because ‘cunt’ is seen as “the worst swearword ever”, the sense of shame created by this particular word is far greater.
Who’d have thought something so small could be so covertly powerful? Not me, that’s for sure. But in all seriousness, can one tiny little word really have all that power?
Hunt doesn’t think so, “it’s not the sole creator of those attitudes”. Rather, she sees the usage of cunt as a swearword as ultimately perpetuating a sense of female shame that is already heavily ingrained within society.
“Women are taught from childhood to be ashamed of their bodies, especially to be ashamed of their vaginas and their cunts. It’s seen as something that you don’t talk about, it’s seen as something that’s dirty.
“Look at the plethora of products that are out there in chemists designed to deodorise your vagina; [to] make it smell like flowers. There’s definitely a sense that it’s dirty, [that] it needs to be covered up, [that] it’s not clean. And I think that using cunt as an insult massively contributes to that feeling among women.”
But then surely words like “cock” and “dick” create the same sense of embarrassment amongst men?
“It’s different amongst men because in our society the phallus is celebrated a lot. Men are very proud of their penises. Little boys grow up hearing ‘penises are great’, and ‘the bigger, the better’, and ‘we [men] are all so good because we have them’. I just don’t think that [gendered swearing] has the same effect on men that it has on women.
“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t say the word cunt. I’m very much pro the word as a descriptor for your anatomy. Hopefully, we could get to a point where cunts are something beautiful, to be proud of, that you talk to your friends about and celebrate.”
But back at Manning, Lindsay doesn’t even want to hear the word, let alone use it in conversation with her friends.
“It’s disgusting,” she says flinching a little, “It just sounds so offensive. Because of the hard C sound, it sounds more aggressive.”
The abrasive sound of the word is certainly a complaint that many people share. But can we ever get to a point where the word doesn’t send shivers down our spine? If so, how do we make this word feel less foreign?
Dr Marc Brennan is a lecturer for the Department of Media and Communications at Sydney University. He believes that the media has the potential to play an important role in deconstructing society’s final taboos.
“If the media starts to allow a word to be said in certain contexts,” Brennan argues, “it demystifies that word. It’s not so much that you become desensitised, but it is certainly made a bit more ordinary.
“Sex and the City is a very good example of the media generating positive debate about particular issues and taboos. They deconstructed the whole panic around using a word like ‘cunt’. That’s HBO though; they’re not at the whim of advertisers, so they can get away with it. The media in this country is being hindered very much [by being] at the mercy of regulatory boards, [who] I would argue are at the mercy of the Christian Right.”
If what Brennan says is true, then it doesn’t seem like the word will be popping up on Neighbours anytime soon. Shame. Perhaps then, if we need to demystify this word, we need to reconsider how it came to hold such significance.
“Abusive language relies on a culture coming together and agreeing that that will be an abusive word,” argues Brennan. “Ultimately, the word ‘cunt’ is a collection of letters. We have imbued it with meaning beyond its original intention.”
The idea that cunt is ‘just a word’ is one that lies at the core of a feminist movement aimed at ‘reclaiming the cunt’. This movement, which is partly artistic, aims at celebrating and normalising this part of female anatomy, both in spoken word and in image.
Perhaps reclamation could be the key to usurping the current negativity with which ‘cunt’ has been instilled with. It’s certainly worked in the past. The word ‘wog’, once a racial slur, is now used with pride and there are many other instances where this sought of reclamation has disempowered a word, whilst re-empowering the people it was meant to denigrate.
“A great example is the word ‘queer’,” says Brennan, “which for so long was a term of abuse and has now been reclaimed by the queer community. That’s proof of how words have no meaning. It all comes down to the culture itself assigning meaning.”
So if we ultimately have the power to assign meaning to words, perhaps it’s time we got over this final taboo.
The word ‘cunt’ should be brought into the public domain, not as a term designed to cause offence, but as a term to be used to describe anatomy.
That said, it’s naïve to think we can ever stop people from swearing. Where the real problem lies is in the culture of shame surrounding human anatomy and sexuality, particularly for women. But perpetuating taboo around this word only serves to stagnate the situation.
Indeed, cunt may be the new fuck, but perhaps it should be the new dick – a word whose negative connotations are usurped by celebration. So say it loud, say it proud and, above all, say it positively: cunt!