Why is the word cunt so offensive?

it seems to have overtaken the word fuck as being the most offensive word you can say but why?

Twat is surely a similar word but seems to get by ok

I wonder who decides what words are more offensive than others?

I suppose it is all dictated by what people simply think. If everyone is told that crap is a dreadful, shocking word. If kids are told off for saying it. If it is never said to anyone but friends or to really offend then it would become the most naughty word.

I think nigger probably trumps the lot of them nowadays. Our capacity for shock at sexual vernacular has been beaten senseless by over exertion in recent decades. Since folk use the words with the same irresponsibility they use antibiotics, they have nowhere to go when they really need to shock. Not just men either. Kids and "ladies" too.

I think nigger probably trumps the lot of them nowadays. Our capacity for shock at sexual vernacular has been beaten senseless by over exertion in recent decades. Since folk use the words with the same irresponsibility they use antibiotics, they have nowhere to go when they really need to shock. Not just men either. Kids and "ladies" too.

I get offended by 'kids' and 'ladies'.

We have perfectly good words- children and women.

 

I think nigger probably trumps the lot of them nowadays. Our capacity for shock at sexual vernacular has been beaten senseless by over exertion in recent decades. Since folk use the words with the same irresponsibility they use antibiotics, they have nowhere to go when they really need to shock. Not just men either. Kids and "ladies" too.

I get offended by 'kids' and 'ladies'.

 

We have perfectly good words- children and women.

Yes. Certainly not ladies when it comes to their language in many cases. That was my point. Public toilets side by side for "LADIES" and "MEN" annoy me. Surely, ladies and gentlemen or men and women.

These things are cyclic. When a word has last its power to shock through overuse, or has become worn out with time, a fresh curse is drafted in to replace it. It may be an old word that has been given a new lease of life. "Cunt" was not always the most offensive word in the English language, but once served merely to describe an anatomical feature of the female sex.

Of course attitudes to taboo language vary by culture. Ours is one where the very mention of certain words, regardless of context, is frowned upon. Some other cultures would find this attitude very strange indeed. How can a word that is only describing part of our own body be so detested? It's pretty fucked up, when you think about it.

it seems to have overtaken the word fuck as being the most offensive word you can say but why?

 

Twat is surely a similar word but seems to get by ok

 

I wonder who decides what words are more offensive than others?

British women especially find this word very offensive.

By starting this thread with such a blatant use of the word, my guess is there's not been a woman of substance in your life for some time, or at least, you are spending too much time with people in that position.

A British work colleague that had married an East European used to use the word a lot, whilst it did not offend his wife as she just viewed it as a general expletive, it grossly offended all of the other British women in a large group of colleagues partners/wives that heard it, and he actually got pulled aside and told to stop using the word in the group.

I think it is offensive, perhaps because it implies a form of demeaning violence - slit/cut. Not sure. It was not my interest in the word that made me reply, it was the blatant use of the word which I am sure most of the women on here found distasteful when they read it, especially in a topic title. I find it offensive because I know how offensive many women find it.

They're just words.

They're just words.

I dare you. Tell that to your boss when you call him one.

I've called him worse, we're great friends.

I think it is offensive, perhaps because it implies a form of demeaning violence - slit/cut.

Eh?

Weirdest comment I've ever read on here that one.

Weirdest comment I've ever read on here that one.

So you never read your own comments then?

As for using such words it just demonstrates a limited vocabulary, a lack of courtesy for others and a desire to shock. It is the shock aspect which I suspect led to the inclusion in the title of the thread.

So you never read your own comments then?

Oo, I do love a challenge! Go on, assuming you are being serious, link some comments of mine which you consider to be weird, and I bet I can explain them to you and show you the error of your perception. I bet you can't even find a weird one. I'll take an absence of a reply as proof of that.

You're so 1970 you should change your name People empower swear words, the adage of "only stupid people with slack vocabularies swear" is nonsense, as if SM is of limited anything, huh.

cross posting with sm, the above was in reply to Manxman1980