Cunt

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Cunt (/kʌnt/) is a vulgar word for the vulva. It is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. "Cunt" is often used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United States, an unpleasant or objectionable man or woman in the United Kingdom and Ireland, or a contemptible man in Australia and New Zealand.[1][2][3] In Australia and New Zealand, it can also be a neutral or positive term when used with a positive qualifier (e.g., "He's a good cunt").[4][5] The term has various derivative senses, including adjective and verb uses.

History

The earliest known use of the word, according to the

placename: a Oxford street called Gropecunt Lane, c. 1230, now by the name of Grove Passage or Magpie Lane. Use of the word as a term of abuse is relatively recent, dating from the late nineteenth century.[6] The word appears not to have been Vulgar in the Middle Ages, but became vulgar towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was then not generally admissible in print until the latter part of the twentieth century.[citation needed
]

Etymology

The etymology of cunt is a matter of debate,[7] but most sources consider the word to have derived from a Germanic word (Proto-Germanic *kuntō, stem *kuntōn-), which appeared as kunta in Old Norse. Scholars are uncertain of the origin of the Proto-Germanic form itself.[8] There are cognates in most Germanic languages, most of which also have the same meaning as the English cunt, such as the Swedish, Faroese and Nynorsk kunta; West Frisian and Middle Low German kunte; another Middle Low German kutte; Middle High German kotze (meaning "prostitute"); modern German kott; Middle Dutch conte; modern Dutch words kut (same meaning) and kont ("butt", "arse"); and perhaps Old English cot.

The

genital, gamete, genetics, gene, or the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷneh₂/guneh₂ "woman" (Greek: gunê, seen in gynaecology). Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin cunnus ("vulva"), and its derivatives French con, Spanish coño, and Portuguese cona, or in Persian kos (کُس), have not been conclusively demonstrated. Other Latin words related to cunnus are cuneus ("wedge") and its derivative cunēre ("to fasten with a wedge", (figurative) "to squeeze in"), leading to English words such as cuneiform ("wedge-shaped"). In Middle English, cunt appeared with many spellings, such as coynte, cunte and queynte, which did not always reflect the actual pronunciation
of the word.

The word, in its modern meaning, is attested in Middle English. Proverbs of Hendyng, a manuscript from some time before 1325, includes the advice:[9]

Ȝeue þi cunte to cunnig and craue affetir wedding.
(Give your cunt wisely and make [your] demands after the wedding.)

Offensiveness

Generally

The word cunt is generally regarded in

English-speaking countries as profanity and unsuitable for normal public discourse. It has been described as "the most heavily tabooed word of all English words",[10][11] although John Ayto, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Slang, says "nigger" is more taboo.[12]

Feminist perspectives

Some American

dehumanisation of women by reducing them to mere body parts;[14] and in 1979 Andrea Dworkin described the word as reducing women to "the one essential – 'cunt: our essence ... our offence'".[14]

Despite criticisms, there is a movement among feminists that seeks to

African-Americans.[15] Proponents include artist Tee Corinne in The Cunt Coloring Book (1975); Eve Ensler in "Reclaiming Cunt" from The Vagina Monologues (1996); and Inga Muscio in her book, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (1998).[16]

Germaine Greer, the feminist writer and professor of English who once published a magazine article entitled "Lady, Love Your Cunt" (anthologised in 1986),[17] discussed the origins, usage and power of the word in the BBC series Balderdash and Piffle, explaining how her views had developed over time. In the 1970s she had "championed" the use of the word for the female genitalia, thinking it "shouldn't be abusive"; she rejected the "proper" word vagina, a Latin name meaning "sword-sheath" originally applied by male anatomists to all muscle coverings (see synovial sheath) – not just because it refers only to the internal canal but also because of the implication that the female body is "simply a receptacle for a weapon".[18] But in 2006, referring to its use as a term of abuse, she said that, though used in some quarters as a term of affection, it had become "the most offensive insult one man could throw at another"[19] and suggested that the word was "sacred", and "a word of immense power, to be used sparingly".[20] Greer said in 2006 that "'cunt' is one of the few remaining words in the English language with a genuine power to shock."[20]

Usage: pre-twentieth century

Cunt has been attested in its anatomical meaning since at least the 13th century. While

red light district. It was normal in the Middle Ages for streets to be named after the goods available for sale therein, hence the prevalence in cities having a medieval history of names such as "Silver Street" and "Fish Street". In some locations, the former name has been bowdlerised, as in the City of York, to the more acceptable "Grape Lane".[22]

The somewhat similar word 'queynte' appears several times in

Wife of Bath also uses this term, "For certeyn, olde dotard, by your leave/You shall have queynte right enough at eve .... What aileth you to grouche thus and groan?/Is it for ye would have my queynte alone?" In modernised versions of these passages the word "queynte" is usually translated simply as "cunt".[24][25] However, in Chaucer's usage there seems to be an overlap between the words "cunt" and "quaint" (possibly derived from the Latin for "known"). "Quaint" was probably pronounced in Middle English in much the same way as "cunt". It is sometimes unclear whether the two words were thought of as distinct from one another. Elsewhere in Chaucer's work the word queynte seems to be used with meaning comparable to the modern "quaint" (curious or old-fashioned, but nevertheless appealing).[26] This ambiguity was still being exploited by the 17th century; Andrew Marvell's ... then worms shall try / That long preserved virginity, / And your quaint honour turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust in To His Coy Mistress depends on a pun on these two senses of "quaint".[27]

By

Ophelia, "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?" Ophelia replies, "No, my lord." Hamlet, feigning shock, says, "Do you think I meant country matters?" Then, to drive home the point that the accent is definitely on the first syllable of country, Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "That's a fair thought, to lie between maids' legs."[28] In Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene V) the puritanical Malvolio believes he recognises his employer's handwriting in an anonymous letter, commenting "There be her very Cs, her Us, and her Ts: and thus makes she her great Ps", unwittingly punning on "cunt" and "piss",[29] and while it has also been argued that the slang term "cut" is intended,[30] Pauline Kiernan writes that Shakespeare ridicules "prissy puritanical party-poopers" by having "a Puritan spell out the word 'cunt' on a public stage".[31] A related scene occurs in Henry V: when Katherine is learning English, she is appalled at the gros, et impudique words "foot" and "gown", which her teacher has mispronounced as coun. It is usually argued that Shakespeare intends to suggest that she has misheard "foot" as foutre (French, "fuck") and "coun" as con (French "cunt", also used to mean "idiot").[32]

Similarly, John Donne alludes to the obscene meaning of the word without being explicit in his poem The Good-Morrow, referring to sucking on "country pleasures". The 1675 Restoration comedy The Country Wife also features such word play, even in its title.[33]

By the 17th century, a softer form of the word, "cunny", came into use. A well-known use of this derivation can be found in the 25 October 1668 entry of the diary of Samuel Pepys. He was discovered having an affair with Deborah Willet: he wrote that his wife "coming up suddenly, did find me embracing the girl con [with] my hand sub [under] su [her] coats; and endeed I was with my main [hand] in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also ...."[34]

Cunny was probably derived from a

cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.'")[35] Because of this slang use as a synonym for a taboo term, the word "coney", when it was used in its original sense to refer to rabbits, came to be pronounced as /ˈkni/ (rhymes with "phoney"), instead of the original /ˈkʌni/ (rhymes with "honey"). Eventually, the taboo association led to the word "coney" becoming deprecated entirely and replaced by the word "rabbit".[35][36][37][38]

Robert Burns (1759–1796) used the word in his Merry Muses of Caledonia, a collection of bawdy verses which he kept to himself and were not publicly available until the mid-1960s.[39] In "Yon, Yon, Yon, Lassie", this couplet appears: "For ilka birss upon her cunt, Was worth a ryal ransom"[40] ("For every hair upon her cunt was worth a royal ransom"[41]).

Usage: modern

As a term of abuse

"Only cunts comply!!!" - One of a series of anti-COVID-19 vaccination stickers fly-pasted onto a signboard advertising the availability of vaccines, at a health centre in Birmingham, England, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merriam-Webster states it is a "usually disparaging and obscene" term for a woman,[1] and that it is an "offensive way to refer to a woman" in the United States.[2] In American slang, the term can also be used to refer to "a fellow male homosexual one dislikes".[42] Australian scholar Emma Alice Jane describes how the term as used on modern social media is an example of what she calls "gendered vitriol", and an example of misogynistic e-bile.[43] As a broader derogatory term, it is comparable to prick and means "a fool, a dolt, an unpleasant person – of either sex".[44][45] This sense is common in New Zealand, British, and Australian English, where it is usually applied to men[46] or as referring specifically to "a despicable, contemptible or foolish" man.[47]

During the 1971

Oz trial for obscenity, prosecuting counsel asked writer George Melly, "Would you call your 10-year-old daughter a cunt?" Melly replied, "No, because I don't think she is."[48]

In the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the central character McMurphy, when pressed to explain exactly why he does not like the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, says, "Well, I don't want to break up the meeting or nothing, but she's something of a cunt, ain't she, Doc?"[49]

Other usage

In informal British, Irish, New Zealand, and Australian English, and occasionally but to a lesser extent in Canadian English, it can be used with no negative connotations to refer to a (usually male) person.[50] In this sense, it may be modified by a positive qualifier (funny, clever, etc.).[51][52][4] For example, "This is my mate Brian. He's a good cunt."[5][53]

It can also be used to refer to something very difficult or unpleasant (as in "a cunt of a job").[54]

In the Survey of English Dialects the word was recorded in some areas as meaning "the vulva of a cow". This was pronounced as [kʌnt] in Devon, and [kʊnt] in the Isle of Man, Gloucestershire and Northumberland. Possibly related was the word cunny [kʌni], with the same meaning, in Wiltshire.[55]

The word "cunty" is also known, although used rarely: a line from

Pakistani immigrant as "eating hot buttered toast with cunty fingers", suggestive of hypocrisy and a hidden sordidness or immorality behind the country's quaint façade. This term is attributed to British novelist Henry Green.[56] In the United States, "cunty" is sometimes used in cross-dressing drag ball culture for a drag queen that "projects feminine beauty"[57] and was the title of a hit song by Aviance.[58] A visitor to a New York drag show tells of the emcee praising a queen with "cunty, cunty, cunty" as she walks past.[59]

Rapper Azealia Banks is known for her frequent usage of the word,[60] and her fans are known as the Kunt Brigade.[61] She's said in one interview:[62]

"To be cunty is to be feminine and to be, like, aware of yourself. Nobody’s fucking with that inner strength and delicateness. The cunts, the gay men, adore that. My friends would say, “Oh you need to cunt it up! You’re being too banjee.”

Frequency of use

Frequency of use varies widely. According to research in 2013 and 2014 by

tweets, the word was most frequently used in the United States in New England and was least frequently used in the south-eastern states.[63][64] In Maine, it was the most frequently used "cuss word" after "asshole".[65]

Examples of use

Literature

James Joyce was one of the first major 20th-century novelists to put the word "cunt" into print. In the context of one of the central characters in Ulysses (1922), Leopold Bloom, Joyce refers to the Dead Sea and to

... the oldest people. Wandered far away over all the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. It lay there now. Now it could bear no more. Dead: an old woman's: the grey sunken cunt of the world.[66]

Joyce uses the word figuratively rather than literally; but while Joyce used the word only once in Ulysses, with four other wordplays ('cunty') on it, D. H. Lawrence later used the word ten times in Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), in a more direct sense.[67] Mellors, the gamekeeper and eponymous lover, tries delicately to explain the definition of the word to Lady Constance Chatterley: "If your sister there comes ter me for a bit o' cunt an' tenderness, she knows what she's after." The novel was the subject of an unsuccessful UK prosecution in 1961 against its publishers, Penguin Books, on grounds of obscenity.[68]

Samuel Beckett was an associate of Joyce, and in his Malone Dies (1956), he writes: "His young wife had abandoned all hope of bringing him to heel, by means of her cunt, that trump card of young wives."[69] In 1998, Inga Muscio published Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. In Ian McEwan's novel Atonement (2001), set in 1935, the word is used in the draft of a love letter mistakenly sent instead of a revised version and, although not spoken, is an important plot pivot.[70]

Irvine Welsh uses the word widely in his novels, such as Trainspotting, generally as a generic placeholder for a man, and not always negatively, e.g. "Ah wis the cunt wi the fuckin pool cue in ma hand, n the plukey cunt could huv the fat end ay it in his pus if he wanted, like."[71][52]

Art

The word is occasionally used in the titles of works of art, such as Peter Renosa's portrait of the pop singer Madonna, I am the Cunt of Western Civilization, from a 1990 quote by the singer.[72] One of the first works of Gilbert & George was a self-portrait in 1969[73] entitled "Gilbert the Shit and George the Cunt".[74] The London performance art group the Neo Naturists had a song and an act called "Cunt Power", a name which potter Grayson Perry borrowed for one of his early works: "An unglazed piece of modest dimensions, made from terracotta like clay – labia carefully formed with once wet material, about its midriff".[75] Australian artist Greg Taylor's display of scores of white porcelain vulvas, "CUNTS and other conversations" (2009), was deemed controversial for both its title and content, with Australia Post warning the artist that the publicity postcards were illegal.[76]

Theatre

Theatre censorship was effectively

Roy "Chubby" Brown claims that he was the first person to say the word on stage in the United Kingdom.[77]

Television

United Kingdom

Broadcast media is regulated for content, and media providers such as the BBC have guidelines which specify how "cunt" and similar words should be treated.[78] In a survey of 2000 commissioned by the British Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority, "cunt" was regarded as the most offensive word which could be heard, above "motherfucker" and "fuck".[79] Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadcast, the word has been aired outside editorial control:

The first scripted uses of the word on British television occurred in 1979, in the

Jerry Springer – The Opera (BBC, 2005), the suggestion that the Christ character might be gay was found more controversial than the chant describing the Devil as "cunting, cunting, cunting, cunting cunt".[84]

In July 2007

BBC Three broadcast an hour-long documentary, entitled The 'C' Word, about the origins, use and evolution of the word from the early 1900s to the present day. Presented by British comedian Will Smith, viewers were taken to a street in Oxford once called Gropecunt Lane and presented with examples of the acceptability of "cunt" as a word.[85] (Note that "the C-word" is also a long-standing euphemism for cancer; Lisa Lynch's book led to a BBC1 drama, both with that title.[86]
)

The Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio report by Ofcom, based on research conducted by Ipsos MORI, categorised the usage of the word 'cunt' as a highly unacceptable pre-watershed, but generally acceptable post-watershed, along with 'fuck' and 'motherfucker'. Discriminatory words were generally considered as more offensive than the most offensive non-discriminatory words such as 'cunt' by the UK public, with discriminatory words being more regulated as a result.[87]

United States

The first scripted use on US television was on the

Today Show, a network broadcast-TV news program, in 2008 when being interviewed by co-host Meredith Vieira about The Vagina Monologues.[90] Coincidentally, nearly two years later in 2010, also on the Today Show, Vieira interviewed a thirteen-year-old girl said the word twice to describe the contents of text messages she was privy too that were central to a well publicized and violent assault. Meredith gently cautioned the girl to choose her words more carefully. As this was a live broadcast on the East Coast, the slurs already were already broadcast, but the producers removed the audio for the Central, Mountain, and Pacific feeds as well as online. Like the Fonda incident, Vieira issued an apology later in the show.[91]
Media Critic Thomas Francis commented on what he perceived to be hypocrisy in the media industry:

Isn't it interesting how the national media licks its chops over this story, delighting in every gory detail, only to caution a 13-year-old girl to be "careful about our language"?

Why should she be careful, Meredith? Because there are 13-year-old girls in the audience? There's so much violence and vulgarity in modern American culture, words like cunt are like so many deck chairs on the Titanic.
[92]

In 2018, Canadian comedian Samantha Bee had to apologize after calling Ivanka Trump, a White House official and the daughter of US President Donald Trump, a "feckless cunt".[93]

Radio

On 6 December 2010 on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, presenter James Naughtie referred to the British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt as "Jeremy Cunt"; he later apologized for what the BBC called the inadvertent use of "an offensive four-letter word".[94] In the programme following, about an hour later, Andrew Marr referred to the incident during Start the Week where it was said that "we won't repeat the mistake" whereupon Marr slipped up in the same way as Naughtie had.[95]

Film

In the United States, the word's first appearance was in graffiti on a wall in the 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog.[96] The first spoken use of the word in mainstream cinema occurs in Carnal Knowledge (1971), in which Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) asks, "Is this an ultimatum? Answer me, you ball-busting, castrating, son of a cunt bitch! Is this an ultimatum or not?" In the same year, the word was used in the film Women in Revolt, in which Holly Woodlawn shouts "I love cunt" whilst avoiding a violent boyfriend.[97] Nicholson later used it again, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).[98] Two early films by Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), use the word in the context of the virgin-whore dichotomy, with characters using it after they were rejected (in Mean Streets) or after they have slept with the woman (in Taxi Driver).[99]

In notable instances, the word has been edited out.

Hit-Girl because the actress playing the part, Chloë Grace Moretz, was 11 years old at the time of filming.[101][102]

In Britain, use of the word "cunt" may result in an "18" rating from the

My Name is Joe was given a 15 certificate despite more than one instance of the word.[105] The 2010 Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll was given a "15" rating despite containing seven uses of the word.[106] The BBFC have also allowed it at the "12" level, in the case of well known works such as Hamlet.[107]

Comedy

In their

Roy 'Chubby' Brown, which ensures that his stand-up act has never been fully shown on UK television.[77]

Australian stand-up comedian Rodney Rude frequently refers to his audiences as "cunts" and makes frequent use of the word in his acts, which got him arrested in Queensland and Western Australia for breaching obscenity laws of those states in the mid-1980s. Australian comedic singer Kevin Bloody Wilson makes extensive use of the word, most notably in the songs Caring Understanding Nineties Type and You Can't Say "Cunt" in Canada.[109]

The word appears in American comic

Louie on FX
network, which bleeps it out.

In 2018, Canadian comedian Samantha Bee had to apologise after calling Ivanka Trump a cunt on American late night TV show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.[93]

Music

The 1977

New Boots and Panties, used the word in the opening line of the track "Plaistow Patricia", thus: "Arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks",[111] particularly notable as there is no musical lead-in to the lyrics.[112][113]

In 1979, during a concert at New York's Bottom Line, Carlene Carter introduced a song about mate-swapping called "Swap-Meat Rag" by stating, "If this song doesn't put the cunt back in country, nothing will."[114][unreliable source?] However use of the word in lyrics is not recorded before the Sid Vicious's 1978 version of "My Way", which marked the first known use of the word in a UK top 10 hit, as a line was changed to "You cunt/I'm not a queer".[115] The following year, "cunt" was used more explicitly in the song "Why D'Ya Do It?" from Marianne Faithfull's album Broken English:

Why'd ya do it, she screamed, after all we've said,
Every time I see your dick I see her cunt in my bed.[116]

The

masturbating nun on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" in large letters on the back. The T-shirt was banned in New Zealand, in 2008.[118]

Liz Phair in "Dance of Seven Veils" on her 1993 album Exile in Guyville, uses the word in the line "I only ask because I'm a real cunt in spring".Liz Phair (22 June 1993). Exile in Guyville (Double LP) (vinyl). Matador Records, OLE 051-1.

The word has been used by numerous non-mainstream bands, such as the Australian band

I Might Be a Cunt, but I'm Not a Fucking Cunt", which was banned.[by whom?][citation needed] The American grindcore band Anal Cunt, on being signed to a bigger label, shortened their name to AxCx.[119]

"Cunt" is uncommon for rap, but there are some examples of its appearance:

  • In Busta Rhymes's song "Light Your Ass on Fire" from the Neptunes album Clones, the word appears in a verse "I see your little gap between your cunt and yo ass."
  • The word appears once in Nicki Minaj's 2010 song "Roman's Revenge". The song includes the lyric "I'm a bad bitch, I'm a cunt."[120] She uses this word again in the song "Ganja Burn" from 2018 album Queen, in a verse: "Watch them cunts learn".
  • The word appears 9 times in Azealia Banks' song "212", where in two verses she sings "Imma ruin you, cunt." She is also known to refer to her fans as "kunts". Banks has said she is "tired" of defending her profanity-laden lyrics from critics, saying they reflect her everyday speech and experiences.[121]
  • It also appears in Flo Milli song "Not Friendly", where she sings a verse "Stay in your place, you little bitty cunt."

Computer and video games

The 2004 video game

Maccer as a "soppy cunt" in the mission Don Peyote.[123]

The 2004 title

SCEE used the word several times during the game.[124]

In the 2008 title

Take Two Interactive), the word, amongst many other expletives, was used by James Pegorino who, after finding out that his personal bodyguard had turned states, exclaimed "The world is a cunt!" while aiming a shotgun at the player.[125]

Linguistic variants and derivatives

Various euphemisms, minced forms and in-jokes are used to imply the word without actually saying it, thereby escaping obvious censure and censorship.

Spoonerisms

Deriving from a

the Cows released an album with the same title. In his 1980s BBC television programme, Kenny Everett played a vapid starlet, Cupid Stunt.[128]

Acronyms

There are numerous informal acronyms, including various apocryphal stories concerning academic establishments, such as the Cambridge University National Trust Society.[129]

Puns

The name "Mike Hunt" is a frequent pun on my cunt; it has been used in a scene from the movie Porky's,[130] and for a character in the BBC radio comedy Radio Active in the 1980s.[131] "Has Anyone Seen Mike Hunt?" were the words written on a "pink neon sculpture" representing the letter C, in a 2004 exhibition of the alphabet at the British Library in collaboration with the International Society of Typographic Designers.[132][133]

As well as obvious references, there are also allusions. On I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Stephen Fry once defined countryside as the act of "murdering Piers Morgan".[134]

Derived meanings

The word "cunt" forms part of some technical terms used in seafaring and other industries.

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b "cunt", Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, archived from the original on 2013-03-23, retrieved 2013-09-13
  3. ^ "Cunt". Macquarie Dictionary. Macmillan. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b Withers, Rachel (2 March 2018). "Lady Bird Has Been Censored in Australia, a Country that Loves the C-Word". Slate. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  5. ^ a b Braae, Alex (19 July 2018). "Good c*nts and pōkokohua: What words do New Zealanders find most offensive?". The Spinoff. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
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  12. ^ Margolis, Jonathan (21 November 2002). "Expletive deleted". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 June 2008. Nigger is far more taboo than fuck or even cunt. I think if a politician were to be heard off-camera saying fuck, it would be trivial, but if he said nigger, that would be the end of his career.
  13. .
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  18. ^ "The C Words". Balderdash and Piffle. Series 1. 2006-01-30. 26 minutes in. BBC Two. ... in the 1970s I thought this word for the female genitalia shouldn't be abusive. I believed it should be an ordinary, everyday word ... it refers to the internal canal only; all the bits that make it fun are left out. ... I refuse to think of my sex as simply a receptacle for a weapon.
  19. ^ "The C Words". Balderdash and Piffle. Series 1. 2006-01-30. 31 minutes in. BBC Two. ... unlike other words for women's genitals, this one sounds powerful – it demands to be taken seriously. In the twentieth century, its strength didn't diminish. ... it became the most offensive insult one man could throw at another. In 1987, at a test [cricket] match in Pakistan, the umpire Shakoor Rana accused English captain Mike Gatting of unfair play. When Gatting denied it, Rana called him 'a fucking cheating cunt'. The fracas caused uproar. Yet only one newspaper, The Independent, dared print the expletive-laden exchange in full. Nearly twenty years later, in some quarters, it is used as a term of affection. Yet for most people the C-word is still a very offensive term ...".
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Further reading

  • "Lady Love Your Cunt", 1969 article by Germaine Greer (see References above)
  • "Vaginal Aesthetics", re-creating the representation, the richness and sweetness, of "vagina/cunt", an article by Joanna Frueh Source: Hypatia, Vol. 18, No. 4, Women, Art, and Aesthetics (Autumn–Winter 2003), pp. 137–158
  • Siebert, Eve (18 January 2011). "Chaucer's Cunt". Sceptical Humanities. Retrieved February 28, 2014.

External links

  • The dictionary definition of cunt at Wiktionary
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