Is 'The C Word' Sexist?

[Rblade]

I really really really don't get teh problem with this word. If it is insulting it is a very lazy insult, it says absolutly nothing negative. It refers to your sexual organ, or in other situations the sexual organ you are implied to possess.

The N word is racist because it refers slavery, which I can get behind.

Along the same line refering to a person as "tits" or "ass" would actually be way more objectifying, thats the parts people actually think about if they view a woman as a sex object. Vaginas, however important to the overall sex act, aren't that much to look at (as are penisses). Or "*****" which would refer to your tendency to have sex with lots of men, presumably for money. Or hell "mom" implying thats all you are good for, should be way way way way way worse. But no, as a lingering remnant of the 50's attitude towards sex we all cringe up in uncomfortable heaps whenever someone refers to it. Which is just stupid because as I said before it has zero negative meaning other then the one we feverishly apply to it wherever possible.

If someone disagrees can they please explain to me what the supposed emotional "baggage" of the word **** is supposed to be and what puts it aside from the one I referenced above, which people seem to be mostly OK with.

 

[Fiairflair]

Well, I live in Australia. Here it is not uncommon for good friends to call one another cunts on leisure.

Good ol' Austarlia.

Were we call our friends cunts and our enemies mate.

'eere 'eere. Good old Collingwood foooreeeeverrr!


To the original questioner I would suggest the following: social context is the main factor in determining how insulting something is. However, how sexist something is should be evaluated objectively. Objectively, the word **** is sexist in the sense that, when directed insultingly at a woman, it acts to reduce her worth to that of a sexual object. The same could be same about calling a man a dick.

I've always found it odd that some people (especially some of my female friends) have a problem with the word **** but find the word slut just fine. It is inconsistent to think sexual objectification is abhorrent but also think sexual vilification is a good thing.

Australia is perhaps unusual in that we have many citizens of British/European decent but also a significant degree of cultural influence from America.

 

[Galletea]

Referring to people as genitalia is a unisex sort of thing. There is no sexism about it. I am not literally referring to someone as a vagina, I merely wish to express how the behaviour of the individual had enraged me. And calling them a **** is often the best way to do this. It is not the meaning of the word which makes it an effective vehicle for doing this, but the idea that it is the worst thing to say.
Interestingly, I would use **** to refer to men or women, but would only use twat for a man, despite its synonymity with ****. I don't know why.

 

[NoeL]

I think "cum dumpster" is both more offensive, AND more sexist. "****" doesn't bother me too much though.

 

[repeating integers]

Not in Britain.

I once participated in a 67-post Facebook discussion about how much of a **** Jeremy Kyle is. The word came up in basically every post.

Yeah, not exactly a big deal.

Jeez! You said that as if butter would melt. You should put something on the end of it mate!

Uh... were you trying to tell me that was a sick burn?

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

I'm unusual in a lot of my opinions. Including that I think that not in every instance the word **** is misogynistic.

However, a good portion of people use the word "****" in a misogynistic fashion. For instance, pretty much every time Hillary Clinton has been called a "****" is has been in a blatantly misogynistic fashion.

For some people the term "****" has become a bit like calling someone a "prick" or a "dick". That's kind of the opposite of sexism since it isn't implying that men or women are jerks. It is kind of ridiculous to use human genitalia to imply that someone is bad or a jerk or anything. It seems to be culturally different, and **** is more often used in a misogynistic fashion in the United States than Europe. In the United States, the word **** is a big deal. In Great Britain, not so much.

One of the words I find even more often used in a sexist fashion today is "pussy". Pussy is extremely commonly used to infer that the feminine and woman are weak. It degrades men who show weakness by comparing them to female genitalia. I think that is pretty misogynistic and offensive.

The word ***** also has varying situations where the context is important to how offensive it is. Using the word "*****" in a "prison-*****" sense is extremely offensive and misogynistic. In this case the word "*****" is used to infer that the feminine are below you or the masculine. And that domination is making someone a woman. In fact one of the reasons I don't like to hear the word ***** in hardly any context is memories of people using the term "*****" with among its most misogynistic implications, the "prison-*****" mentality. It is also offensive when the word ***** is used to dismiss any woman with an opinion as an unreasonable "asshole".

Slut is offensive in most negative contexts. It strongly implies that a woman should have less sex than a man which is blatantly sexist.

 

[Rastien]

Well i'm not sure if it's sexist but my sister uses the word **** like there's not tomorrow you're a ****, alright cunty that's cuntish and other colourful variations.

 

[lechat]

Well, I live in Australia. Here it is not uncommon for good friends to call one another cunts on leisure.

Good ol' Austarlia.

Were we call our friends cunts and our enemies mate.

LMAO
it never even occurred to me that i usually call ppl i hate mate or buddy or pal but as most aussies know i obviously call my friends cunts on a daily basis.

generally as an australian i take zero offense to the word **** and would literally be more offended if someone called me a loser/bludger/scumbag but it's common practice not to call women cunts if you are even slightly serious and even joking is a bit iffy.

as to why **** is more offensive than dick or cock? apart from the fact it is a pretty offensively pronounced word i believe in some circumstances the average guy is proud to have a penis and women are ashamed to have vaginas. and before i cop shit for that - i recently seen an interview with a head spokesman (woman) of libra (major tampon brand) who was unable to say the word vagina on TV without muttering it under her breath

 

[UBERfionn]

Words cannot be sexist.
Only people can be sexist.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

It all depends on context. There was a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David raised a good point: "I say prick all the time and that's not sexist." I find it somewhat sexist when a guy is called a pussy (though admittedly it's an aesthetic complaint - not a fan of the way that word sounds). That suggests that men are supposed to act a certain way and that type of behavior is associated negatively with female genitalia. I happen to like female genitalia a lot and I really don't like negative connotations attached to it. "****" is already kind of an ugly sounding word and I don't feel like it's used to describe body parts as much as it's used to describe people. A **** can be a mean woman, a whiny man, or just a general jerk. It seems to transcend gender and isn't directly tied to an annoying stereotype like weakness. Meanwhile, dicks and pricks are always men.

 

[In Search of Username]

People say it's sexist because it turns the female genitals into an insult, but then no-one ever says 'dick' is sexist towards men, so whatever.

Personally I like to judge people by their intentions rather than their language. If they were trying to be sexist, it's sexist. If they weren't, it's not.

 

[knight steel]

Words only have as much power as society/government/you gives them-if you stop caring about it by letting it be said often enough the word loses all meaning-the lesson dear children that this teaches us is the following:want to undermine the word let people use it.

But I digress that's more on the power of words not on if they are sexist,so in this case-it depends Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex for the word to be sexist it would have be used specifically to single out and target the gender it applies to.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I've never actually heard a girl get called a ****. Guys, though? All the time. I don't consider it particularly terrible. If I wanted to actually insult a girl by 'reducing her to just her parts' or whatever the stupid determinist logic behind this is, I'd probably just call her a filthy cum-dumpster and be done with it. Obviously I don't ever actually do that, but the option is there.

I'm also British, if anyone hasn't guessed. In certain pubs, finding new and inventive ways to call people cunts is practically a past-time in between rounds of darts.

I think "cum dumpster" is both more offensive, AND more sexist. "****" doesn't bother me too much though.

Seriously? I get ninjad on 'cum-dumpster' of all things. Well done Sir

 

[stormgsk]

only as much as calling someone a dick.

 

[Mr F.]

Its sexist and the amount it is used does not make it any less sexist. I had to spend over an hour educating a friend of mine as to why the use of the word "Gay" to mean "Anything not good" (See: "That's totally gay" or equivalent) is homophobic. Context is everything, true, and many people who use it, including myself, do not intend to be sexist in the slightest. However, it is still sexist.

One might as well argue that "******" is not homophobic because it is used by so many people in certain communities, or "******" is not racist for the same reason. Context is everything but content still matters. It is not even a question of whether or not you are offending the person you are calling a ****, it is a question of if others are finding your language offensive that are in earshot.

It is why I do not like eating out with my sisters. I swear a lot, although I try and limit this to when it is socially acceptable. I swear more around my sisters, they swear constantly. They have no issue with speaking the same as they do when at home as they do in public and I find it upsetting.

Snip

No, I would say being abusive and misogynistic is sexist. **** is just a word.

Ah, This argument. It is a word with baggage. Like I said, context matters, but context does not change the content. Intent matters, but intent is not everything. If you totally and utterly accidentally buy stolen goods you can still be arrested for handling them, even if that was not your intent, for ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.

If I call someone a fucking ****** it does not mater at all if I meant "You very nice person who I love dearly", the term is homophobic REGARDLESS of intent. Same with calling someone a ****. The term is sexist, pure and simple, (As are terms like "Dick" but you know what, that argument is circular and pointless). The question is how much you care and do the people around you care?

For whilst I will not stand for the F word that I have typed multiple times during this post, I can call people cunts. And I do. I accept that it is sexist, I also accept that my close friends are all male and that no harm whatsoever is meant. However, I am still being sexist. Much like when I posted the words "Ding dong the ***** is dead" on FB, that was a sexist remark, it was a gendered insult. It was wrong.

Most of our insults are insulting. That is sorta the point of insults. Denying that the term being discussed is not sexist based on either intent or proliferation is utterly, UTTERLY pointless, for all of the arguments made above.

Unless you intend to indicate that the F word or the N word used above are not racist or homophobic. In which case you are quite simply wrong.

Couple questions -
1. If a gay man says ****** or a black guy uses ******, are they still homophobic/racist words? 'Cause it seems that with those words it's more the social context and who is using the word than the actual meaning of the word.

2. Is **** 'sexist' if the group doesn't associate it with it's original meaning? Not like, a small group of friends, but say an entire town/city/country? I say this because outside the capital cities of Australia (at least the more 'official' places of the cities, since they tend to look down on people saying 'damn' let alone the heftier swear words), '****' doesn't have any real meaning. It's a heavier-sounding fuck - no gender association or anything, just a word you use that's meaning depends entirely on the context and inflection you use with it (a high-pitched '****' is a friendly word, a deeper/drawn out **** is hostile/showing anger at something, a 'Cunting X/Fucking ****' is a negative), and has been used as such over multiple generations.

Basically, if the word has been used for 80+ years by a large group of people without gendered association, is it still a 'sexist' word? Granted, finding the word offensive yourself and walking into such a group would probably shock you inside out, but I imagine that's just the end result of two social groups with opposing views interacting.

Well, these two questions will take seconds to answer:

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

Thats about it. Gay people can use homophobic words, not every word used by a gay person is no longer homophobic. Intent matters but content is very important. Thats about it really. And the word **** does have gendered associations, it might have colloquial meanings and uses but honestly, we all know what it means. We all know it means vagina. The association is still there. It still has its meaning.

This is not a subject I can speak with total authority on. I might just text my sister James, he specializes in this kind of stuff (English needs more gender neutral terms. That was a clunky as fuck way of referring to my sibling who happens to be gender neutral. But they prefer it that way).

The real question is how much you, and the people you are talking to, care. (This is where it is back to context). IF the people around you know you are not being sexist, then you are not being sexist despite the words you are using. But the words themselves still have those meanings. Its a strange thing to bend your mind around.

 

[Eggsnham]

No. If I can use any other given term for vagina without anybody having a problem, then there's not any reason why I shouldn't be able to use '****'.

If a word is discriminative or offensive, then all of its variants and relatives are as well. That's not really the case in this situation. It may be rude or tasteless to say things like 'pussy', 'twat', 'snatch', etc. But hardly discriminative. ****, however... apparently that's the worst thing ever.

Don't get me wrong, if somebody asks me to not use a specific word in their presence, I'm going to listen, I just don't see why some people have a stick up their ass about the word ****.

 

[itsthesheppy]

I'm not sure it's inherently sexist. I mean yeah, it's a specifically female perjorative meant to reduce a person down to their genitals, but by the same topic you can call a guy a dick, or a 'knobhead' or a dickface or something.

It's definitely not a nice word, though. The human race would not be much poorer if people chose not to use it.

 

[JediMB]

To me, **** is like dick, and I don't find it particularly sexist to use either. But I'm Swedish, so whatever.

I also don't use the equivalent insults in Swedish, because I consider them too crude in my own language.

Funny that, I guess.