Since we're not in Britain your apologetic falls flat.
In any case it's an insult, so unless you're saying that argument by insult is OK you shouldn't be defending it's use.
I'm sorry, who is "we"? Do you mean "The Internet"? "The Skeptical community"? Who is this "we" you're referring to here?
Me, I live in Canada but I am British and spent most of my life there including all of my schooling. But of course "we" aren't in Britain so therefore there must be cultural homogeneity in all the language "we" use lest somebody in North America be forced to acknowledge the existence of other cultures and differing cultural mores.
My post was an attempt to explain that while I think that the silly pun "Twatson" was idiotic, I didn't consider it to indicate anything more sinister than the immaturity of whoever coined it. But apparently acknowledging that there are different standards for the offensiveness of specific words in different English-speaking cultures was so difficult for you it makes much more sense to label me as a misogynist apologetic.
In the UK 99% of the use of the word "twat" and the c-bomb has absolutely nothing to do with anybody's anatomy. Do not presume to impose the niceties of your culture on everybody else.
Where did you grow up ? As a Brit schoolkid in London in the 70s , twat was a relatively immature way of referring to female genitalia, when we boys had no idea specifically what we were talking about, rather than say the (more taboo among children) C word. Later twat did also come to mean a stupid person.
Later on as in... now? As in about the time when people started using "Twatson" as an insult?
The same as the c word (don't think the forum censors will allow , doesn't matter) has come to mean a stupid or obnoxious (usually male) person.
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Exactly. In the UK and Ireland (and possibly Australia and NZ but one of our Antipodean compatriots could probably correct me) those words have developed a meaning that has relatively little to do with a vulgar reference to a part of a lady.
There again in the UK the word "pussy" still mainly means cat.
It doesn't work as a Brit insult given the difference in the pronunciation between the uk and the us. In the US the a in twat and watson are pronounced the same, in the uk they ate very different.
I don't think anyone making a childish pun would say "Hey if we add a letter 'T' to the front of her name it'll say 'Twatson' and then... no. No, that won't work, the 'A' sound in 'Watson' is different to the 'A'sound in 'twat'. We'll have to think of something else'."
I think it's worth pointing out again how infantile this sort of insult is. I think that the FTB crowd are trying to make it more sinister than it is so that they can continue to do the exact same thing when referring to "Blunderf00t" or "Justin Vacuous".
Given the vile misogynistic abuse which rebecca has suffered (alongside legitimate criticism) I dont see why we should assume that this childish insult is an innocent transatlantic misunderstanding.
No, I think we should assume it's a childish insult.
Cool. I like that.
