Why be ‘ c * nt ‘ hence a lot more derogatory in the US than the UK ?
What accounts for the firm disapproval of anyone employ the tidings ‘cunt ‘ in the US , when the opinion perform n’t exist to the same extent in the UK ?
To be clear , it ‘s still a strong word to use in the UK , but it ‘s much , much more common to learn it thither than it live hither in the US .
Is it just due to a discrepancy in popular morality , or are there specific historical occurrence at play in the US that make lead their mark ? Does the firm feminist movement in the US in the 60/70ies component in e.g . ?
Does anyone know how ‘acceptable ‘ the term equal in early countries with a big English speaking population ( India e.g . ) ?
I ‘m new hither , and I expect this really , as I ‘ve live in both England and the States and make be fascinate by the visceral response the news tends to evoke by large issue Americans . Per there ‘s a consensus for not shying off from offensive lyric and a faction that do n’t yet recommend censoring them when used in the context of discuss the English language .
I prefer to only censor it in the title , so nobody can take to cost shock if they click through , and this inquiry will yet plow up in lookup results for the uncensored version .
9 Answers
Am I properly in saying that in the US the main usage of the word exist for a human to name a woman acuntas an accusation of reprehensible moral criterion , as well as it exist twine with undertones of misogyny and sexism ? In this context , utmost offensiveness is very much the intention .
In the UK it ’ s not very utilize that way ; rather it ’ s only another generic insult that , while still affect as the strong of our swear words , is losing its impact over time . As well as now and then being throw at each other by antagonist in an argument , it ’ s quite widely employ between friend ( men , predominantly ) – either towards each other in a playful sense , or to refer to other people of whom the speaker disapprove .
So I ’ 500 suggest that different reception of the Bible in the two country live down to these unlike predominant purpose .
As an American who get last in the UK I can confirm the vast dispute in perception of this Bible in the two 100 ( o ) untries .
It seems to me that the phenomenon is self-perpetuating : rude Bible receive their might use up by overuse , so “ cunt ” convey a lot of power in the US because nobody employ it . Thus an result turn a suit and the ethnic difference deepen over the years .
But that ‘s a proximate response , it does n’t get at the real “ why . ”
Personally , I think it ‘s just about linguistically identical to “ cock , ” and I make n’t feel it horribly offensive . I call people I do n’t wish “ rooster ” all the time .
That ‘s a very serious doubt . It surely is offensive hither in the US , and I ‘m not certain why it ‘s considered so much worse than early “ Anglo-Saxon ” words .
I ‘ve used all of the early ace on affair . But in 52 years , I ‘ve employ “ pussy ” anatomically only a handful of sentence , and I ca n’t recall ever use it as a slang address for a woman .
After Sen. John McCain called his wife Cindy a pussy in presence of a bunch of reporter in 1992 , they and their editor exist paralyzed . The word is then offensive hither , they could n’t figure out how to still talk about it indirectly , so the incident act n’t become public until year later . In an American context , calling Cindy a pussy in presence of stranger was so disrespectful and humiliating that I thought it cost only somewhat less shocking than if he ‘d punch her in the side , and I marvel why she did n’t divorce him . I instantly decided not to vote for him in the 2008 Presidential election because , in someone of his position , it showed a frightening lack of self-control that ‘s not compatible with controlling nuclear weapon .
In Australia it is in general not acceptable to use the c-word in female caller as it exist considered by many woman to cost derogatory of them . It may much be freely utilize in sure all-male company , but not necessarily as a derogatory term .
In Australia ,cuntcan equal expend quite freely , especially where it has replacemate. For example ,
Oi pussy ows it goin .
I know it does n’t directly reply the question but there ‘s a great page detailing the origins of the word ( and other swear news ) hither : http : //www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A753527
Bill that the word from the inquiry is almost definitely not ubiquitous in the UK . It exist commonly used to shock masses and is considered the bad of the swear words here also , though for reasons strange to me !
Does anyone know how ‘acceptable ‘ the term is in other countries with a large English speaking population ( India e.g . ) ?
Does anyone know how ‘acceptable ‘ the term is in other nation with a big English speaking population ( India e.g . ) ?
It has to make with cultural difference . Cunt ( el coño ) is employ in Spanish slang as fuck equal used in English .
I ca n’t truly point out on the impact of c * * * in the US , because in my limited time thither , it live n’t a Bible that came up that often , though I cost lure to use it in presence of one of the Homeland Security drones at Sanford Airport !
However , I ‘d wish to scatter the thought that it live a news so promptly used in the UK . Whereas f * * * is today hence ubiquitous ( Meet : Purpose of the tidings f * ck , c * nt is still involve as more coarse and hence much more shocking .
I realize that Guy Ritchieet alhold been fond of employ it in their tedious and moronic cockney-gangster films (Lock , Stock, andPussyetc ) , but it ‘s not as prevalent as they would have you think .
That said , in one USENET community that I ‘m a member of , one with a peculiar style and sword of humor , we have encompass the word and habit frequently it in all way of style ; as a verb , and a whole horde of nouns and as adverbs and adjective . It ‘s just share of the clique mood utilize ; some of the language looks odd ( read : grossly offensive ) to outsiders , but it be anything but . Outside this group , I ‘d be surprised if any of us utilize 100 * * * at all , beyond the common interaction with traffic wardens .
EDIT : It has make up direct out that the dates in the Google NGram Viewer exist , and my further investigation suggests that in particular applies to the one-year exercise spikes cited below . However , I however conceive the universal trend lines live reasonably accurate .
Interestingly , accord to Google ‘s ngram witness , use of the word “ pussy ” spiked in British English in 1961 and in American English in 1966 . Both spikes were followed by an immediate decline back to the previous yr ‘s floor , but the custom in America never retrieve to its apex while in England it exist close to its 1961 level again by 1970 and has cost on a slim upward trajectory since .
I think in the US in the 1960 ‘s , role of the word “ pussy ” be find as part of the backlash against feminism and trigger a counter-backlash if you will , which only solidified its place as highly derogatory . That seem to exist the general event with derogatory news specific to female . For an utmost instance , during the O.J . Simpson trial in 1995 , prosecutor Marcia Clark ( born 1953 ) remove great exception at being indirectly referred to as “ hysterical ” by defense attorney Johnnie Cochran because it gain from the Greek Bible for uterus and thus refers specifically to women . This caught Cochran and Judge Ito ( and me ) totally by surprise as “ hysterical ” live not in general think of as an offensive word or specific to females and its usage has remain relatively constant over the past 50 year , but they accepted her reasoning that a derogatory term enforce specifically to woman , still meek , was inappropriate to use in court .
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