the "f" word or "c" word
Valerie
If you're offended by hearing certain words, you might not want to
read the following essay that Laurie wrote for an Advanced Grammar
and Composition class. The topic of discussion in the class was the
use/misuse and overreactions about cursing. I thought the essay was
relevant and it certainly reflects how I also feel. btw: she made an
A on this paper from a rather demanding professor.
love, Valerie
Strong Words or Taboo Words
As one of those feminists who don't mind words like cunt or
pussy as long as they aren't used as a derogatory name for a female,
I was intrigued by the book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. The
author, Inga Muscio, became interested in the word after completing a
writing assignment at work and mislabeling "Word Count" as "Word
Cunt". After her supervisor pointed out her obscene misspelling, she
liked the way it looked and started calling herself the "Word Cunt".
Extreme reactions to this led her to do research on the offending
word, which produced material that inspired her enough to write a
book.
Muscio says that she would rather say cunt than vagina
because the latter means "sheath for a sword". She thought that her
body should mean more than what it was in relation to a man, so she
chose to use cunt because the etymology of that word was much nicer.
It had only been made "dirty" because it was a word women used and
men turned it against them.
This is fascinating, but it doesn't change the fact that
many people shudder when they hear the "c-word", which is fascinating
in itself. The power of one word to turn one's stomach is amazing.
There are certain words that, said without any inflection or written
alone on a piece of paper, can provoke emotional and sometimes
physical reactions. These reactions lessen as we hear the word more
and more, causing us to become desensitized.
I will readily admit that I am desensitized to most words.
I knew this for certain when someone asked me if a movie that I had
just seen had too much cursing in it and I didn't remember. I am not
bothered in the least by profanity in public space, as long as the
speaker knows other words too.
My Aunt Laura used to say that people who cursed had bad
vocabularies. When I was young I believed this, but as I got older I
came upon a revelation: curse words are just words, so if you use a
curse word then you have mathematically increased your vocabulary. I
do know that she really meant that if someone needed to use cursing
to express him or herself and could find no other way, then their
vocabulary was limited. I accepted this, but did not think about it
any further until I attended the Voodoo Fest last year.
The Voodoo Fest is a massive outdoor concert that is held in
New Orleans the weekend before Halloween. Ten to twenty bands of
varying notoriety play on three different stages, artisans set up
tents, and throngs of people walk around and get dirty, high, drunk,
sunburned and dehydrated (I'm not going back this year). One of the
performers at the 2000 Fest was Eminem, a young rapper much maligned
for the violence and cursing in his music. I had heard his hit songs
and found them catchy if nothing else, so my friends and I planned to
watch him.
Eminem went through a few hits, then launched into one that
I had never heard before, called I Shit on You. The chorus was as
follows:
If you don't like my shit, then you can suck my bad-ass dick!
<repeat>
I shit on you! <repeat several times>
I finally truly understood what Aunt Laura was talking about
when she spoke of limited vocabularies. I was growing annoyed
Eminem was using these words like a little kid who has just
discovered a new toy. I have long been a student of the proper way
to cuss someone out and Eminem hadn't. The enlightened user of
profanity blends it with big, confusing words and non-profane
insults. I'll mark that concert as the first time in my short adult
life that I got sick of "dirty words".-
Laurie Chancey
read the following essay that Laurie wrote for an Advanced Grammar
and Composition class. The topic of discussion in the class was the
use/misuse and overreactions about cursing. I thought the essay was
relevant and it certainly reflects how I also feel. btw: she made an
A on this paper from a rather demanding professor.
love, Valerie
Strong Words or Taboo Words
As one of those feminists who don't mind words like cunt or
pussy as long as they aren't used as a derogatory name for a female,
I was intrigued by the book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. The
author, Inga Muscio, became interested in the word after completing a
writing assignment at work and mislabeling "Word Count" as "Word
Cunt". After her supervisor pointed out her obscene misspelling, she
liked the way it looked and started calling herself the "Word Cunt".
Extreme reactions to this led her to do research on the offending
word, which produced material that inspired her enough to write a
book.
Muscio says that she would rather say cunt than vagina
because the latter means "sheath for a sword". She thought that her
body should mean more than what it was in relation to a man, so she
chose to use cunt because the etymology of that word was much nicer.
It had only been made "dirty" because it was a word women used and
men turned it against them.
This is fascinating, but it doesn't change the fact that
many people shudder when they hear the "c-word", which is fascinating
in itself. The power of one word to turn one's stomach is amazing.
There are certain words that, said without any inflection or written
alone on a piece of paper, can provoke emotional and sometimes
physical reactions. These reactions lessen as we hear the word more
and more, causing us to become desensitized.
I will readily admit that I am desensitized to most words.
I knew this for certain when someone asked me if a movie that I had
just seen had too much cursing in it and I didn't remember. I am not
bothered in the least by profanity in public space, as long as the
speaker knows other words too.
My Aunt Laura used to say that people who cursed had bad
vocabularies. When I was young I believed this, but as I got older I
came upon a revelation: curse words are just words, so if you use a
curse word then you have mathematically increased your vocabulary. I
do know that she really meant that if someone needed to use cursing
to express him or herself and could find no other way, then their
vocabulary was limited. I accepted this, but did not think about it
any further until I attended the Voodoo Fest last year.
The Voodoo Fest is a massive outdoor concert that is held in
New Orleans the weekend before Halloween. Ten to twenty bands of
varying notoriety play on three different stages, artisans set up
tents, and throngs of people walk around and get dirty, high, drunk,
sunburned and dehydrated (I'm not going back this year). One of the
performers at the 2000 Fest was Eminem, a young rapper much maligned
for the violence and cursing in his music. I had heard his hit songs
and found them catchy if nothing else, so my friends and I planned to
watch him.
Eminem went through a few hits, then launched into one that
I had never heard before, called I Shit on You. The chorus was as
follows:
If you don't like my shit, then you can suck my bad-ass dick!
<repeat>
I shit on you! <repeat several times>
I finally truly understood what Aunt Laura was talking about
when she spoke of limited vocabularies. I was growing annoyed
Eminem was using these words like a little kid who has just
discovered a new toy. I have long been a student of the proper way
to cuss someone out and Eminem hadn't. The enlightened user of
profanity blends it with big, confusing words and non-profane
insults. I'll mark that concert as the first time in my short adult
life that I got sick of "dirty words".-
Laurie Chancey
Mary Bianco
>From: "Valerie" <valfitz@...>Generally I don't have a problem with curse words. But for some reason, the
>
>If you're offended by hearing certain words, you might not want to
>read the following essay that Laurie wrote for an Advanced Grammar
>and Composition class. The topic of discussion in the class was the
>use/misuse and overreactions about cursing. I thought the essay was
>relevant and it certainly reflects how I also feel. btw: she made an
>A on this paper from a rather demanding professor.
C word just makes me cringe. Yes I know it shoulnd't, it'sjust a word but
that one does it for me. Just the sound of it. I'm thinking, like in the
article, that it's because of how I always heard it used. Always to describe
women in just the worst possible way. I have the same problem with the N
word too. I know it's used a lot now in songs and even within the black
community, as term of endearment, although a lot of black people argue that
thought too. I just remember growing up and how I heard it used and what I
know they meant. I guess it's still with me today on both of those words but
I deal with it the best I can.
Mary B
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