The 'c' word: really a very nice thing

By Gabrielle Jackson

I once decided that I was going to try to use the word 'cunt' as often as possible in order to reclaim it. I didn't see why the most offensive word in the English language had to be a part of the female anatomy. Why are people so offended by female genitalia? This is a question that requires a lot more than a blog post to answer. 

There was one problem with my resolution: it really offended people. I'm actually not that keen on going around offending nice people even when I think I've got a really good point to make. So, now, I generally tend to keep from dropping the 'c' word unless I'm in one of three following situations:

1. There are sexist men around me who are being offensive,

2. I think the people I'm with will think it's funny, or

3. I'm hideously drunk. 

This week I was reading a book written and edited by my friend Liz Fell, The Coming Out Show: Twenty years of feminist ABC radio, and I came across this quote from Beryl Henderson, who had been campaigning for abortion rights in the UK and Australia even before World War Two broke out. The interview took place in 1976 and signified the feminist radio programme's first major struggle with the use of the words 'fuck' and 'cunt' on the radio in Australia. 

Asked to comment on the new generation of feminists, Henderson said:

'I don't enjoy their language. Not only being a little prudish I suppose, from my upbringing, but I've always felt it a shame that something which is really delightful should be used as a swear word...Actually fuck is a nice word, it's an Anglo-Saxon word. And cunt is the worst thing you can say, and yet as a man will say, "Well, it really is a very nice thing, isn't it?" And yet nowadays, women are joining men in putting a false value on good things. It seems to me a bit blasphemous.'

Thanks, Beryl, for helping me see the error of my ways.