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The C Word

Visual Purple said:
The UK version doesn't strike me as too bad--it's a bit sexist used of a male, because it suggests that being called something associated with females is bad. The US version carries a real nastiness that it shares with the N-word when that word is used with hostility. Connotation's hard to give evidence for, but to me at least, with US users, it seems to carry a strong implication of subhumanity--as if the person were nothing but the body part in question.
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Yes, I think you have this exactly right. It is dehumanizing.
 
At least one feminist I know has recommended to me a book called '****: A declaration of independence' - a movement to reclaim the c-word. Kind of like a short f-word that british people use to call cigarettes is sometimes used in the GLBT community to take the 'power' out of the word.
 
Antiquehunter said:
At least one feminist I know has recommended to me a book called '****: A declaration of independence' - a movement to reclaim the c-word. Kind of like a short f-word that british people use to call cigarettes is sometimes used in the GLBT community to take the 'power' out of the word.
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I saw at least one female at TAM9 wearing a T-shirt with the word on (the slogan is "I <3 my ****"), reclaiming the word for its original meaning. On the other hand, I'm on a football mailing list, and the word gets fairly heavy use there (though not, I would say, in a particularly misogynistic manner).
 
As for someone's assertion way back that the word is commonly used and has little shock value in Scotland, I never even heard the word until I was a post-graduate student, when my notoriously potty-mouthed PhD supervisor used it in my hearing. I did a little bit of discreet research to figure out what the hell this word was and what the connotations were.

Recently, some research relating to a particular Burns song and its tune led me in the direction of The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Oh my! :eek:

Rolfe.

By the way, who thinks British people only used to refer to cigarettes as "fags"? The word is in common everyday use in that context and has no negative connotations at all - unless you're trying to shame people into giving up the cancer sticks.
 
I never liked using the word until I heard Carlin's routine more recently than I care to admit. Now I use it occasionally, and very dependent on context. I'm still not entirely comfortable with it.
 
Rolfe said:
By the way, who thinks British people only used to refer to cigarettes as "fags"? The word is in common everyday use in that context and has no negative connotations at all - unless you're trying to shame people into giving up the cancer sticks.
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It's certainly still in use meaning "cigarette", and I too thought it wasn't used in the American sense here, but Darat corrected me when I said so on another thread. (I can't find the post as the search function won't search for a three-letter word.)
 
zooterkin said:
It's certainly still in use meaning "cigarette", and I too thought it wasn't used in the American sense here, but Darat corrected me when I said so on another thread. (I can't find the post as the search function won't search for a three-letter word.)
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Perhaps we were slightly at cross purposes there. I was meaning it has no negative connotations when used as a word for a cigarette. And it is commonly used in that context.

That doesn't mean some cretins haven't picked up on the Amercian usage and copied that.

Rolfe.
 
however, it's rarely meant in either the meaning of exhausted or the meaning of public school servant, both of which used to be common.
 
Lamuella said:
however, it's rarely meant in either the meaning of exhausted or the meaning of public school servant, both of which used to be common.
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I don't honestly know, because neither meaning is in normal use in Scotland. I got these by reading Billy Bunter books.

Other meanings emerged when I took a job in Yorkshire and spent some time wondering why the butchers' shops all seemed to be selling firewood. In July.

Rolfe.
 
Professor Yaffle said:
Link to the BBC list of swearwords posted on BadScience which orders them according to how strong people consider them (url tinied due the forum censoring the address...)

http://tinyurl.com/7rnspa

NSFW obviously
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This thread is bollocks. Obviously started by some wanker. This is a test to see whether the modbot will filter the 5th and 8th most offensive. The trouble with swearing is that not all English speaking cultures understand what the swear words mean or for that matter slang.

Tell and American "you are off to bum a fag" and you'll get a strange look.
Tell an Aussie that your grandma tried to snog you and you'll get an even stranger one.

Edit: Haha - yep thought so lets just post **** and **** to check.
 
Antiquehunter said:
To me, the word is so harsh because of how it rolls off the tongue. 'Dork' for example just sounds more light and frivolous. The 'C' word sounds angry and derogatory. Purely psychological I suppose.
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I don't know, I think the F word has just as much auditory venom but is more widely accepted, while the N word is much softer coming off the tongue but is nearly as taboo.

Something has occurred to me though. I haven't looked at the whole list, but for the curses I'm thinking of off the top of my head, the following is generally true: the more acceptable curse words have other meanings and contexts in which they are used. For example, F and S are bodily functions (useful, common ones, too) and can be used in a variety of contexts that don't insult anyone ("F this S, I'm going home."). C and N are exclusively insults. I wonder if the other meanings/uses have sucked some of the shock value away?


(I have to add that writing "the C word" and "the N word" make me feel childish, but if I were to write them out I'd feel the need for a shower.)
 
NobbyNobbs said:
I don't know, I think the F word has just as much auditory venom but is more widely accepted, while the N word is much softer coming off the tongue but is nearly as taboo.

Something has occurred to me though. I haven't looked at the whole list, but for the curses I'm thinking of off the top of my head, the following is generally true: the more acceptable curse words have other meanings and contexts in which they are used. For example, F and S are bodily functions (useful, common ones, too) and can be used in a variety of contexts that don't insult anyone ("F this S, I'm going home."). C and N are exclusively insults. I wonder if the other meanings/uses have sucked some of the shock value away?


(I have to add that writing "the C word" and "the N word" make me feel childish, but if I were to write them out I'd feel the need for a shower.)
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The C word is not exclusively an insult, it can be used as the name of a part of the body. Also, the other meanings came first, the shock value came later.
 
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