The Late Post: Not in Front of the Children (Part 1)
When the BBC’s 1953 production of ‘Quatermass’ was scaring the hell out of the nascent television nation, it prompted the debut of the announcer’s warning to be issued for the benefit of unprepared viewers: ‘In our opinion, we believe the following programme is not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition.’ I only mention this as a kind of prelude to a post liable to cause offence to the more squeamish of visitors, for I am about to present the first in an occasional series examining words that are not wise to utter in polite company. Call it the dark side of the highly popular post that appeared over Christmas, ‘The Lost Lexicon of England’, if you like. If you don’t, f**k you. Only joking – just getting you ready. Here goes…
CUNT
One of the top two taboo words in the English language, cunt serves as a catch-all term for women’s naughty bits and a description of an unlikeable person; numerous words used as insults have sexual connotations – dickhead, knobhead, fanny, twat, cock, prick, arsehole, wanker, tosser, fucker etc. But none have the impact of cunt. It is a word still used sparingly on television, even dramas – ditto cinema. A memorable episode of cult US sitcom ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ has the perennial social disaster that is the Larry David character breaking up a convivial post-dinner party card game by suddenly crying ‘What a cunt!’ – a statement uttered in jest that nevertheless goes down like the proverbial lead balloon, leaving the PC-riddled LA sophisticates speechless, and leading to Larry and his wife being asked to leave. Like mentioning a fondness for a band you’re not certain is a shared passion, cunt is a word that tends to be held back when in company until one can discern whether or not it will be received favourably.
As with many such words, the origins of cunt are hazy. Some say it’s derived from ancient Germanic-based languages, and it surfaces in the Middle English era, particularly in Chaucer, albeit as ‘queynte’; the bawdy context in which Chaucer uses it implies he does indeed meant cunt rather than quaint. The reference to female genitalia is often associated with an apocryphal eleventh century London street, Gropecunt Lane, which was allegedly situated in a red-light district, upholding the old tradition of streets being named after the predominant business of the neighbourhood; however, some believe the word was already in Anglo-Saxon use as a non-offensive slang term for the vagina. Changing moral attitudes by the time of Shakespeare seem to require poets and playwrights engaging in word play to sneak the word into their works, sometimes pronouncing ‘country’ with heavy emphasis on the first syllable. A little later, the word ‘cunny’ appears as a softer variation, though following the example of the notorious libertine poet the Earl of Rochester it becomes more commonplace again in the rakish Georgian era.
After another lengthy spell as a forbidden word, cunt slowly reappears in twentieth century literature, with the likes of James Joyce, DH Lawrence and Henry Miller using it to varying degrees and receiving lengthy bans for their troubles. Even the ‘let it all hang out’ hippy culture of the late 60s/early 70s didn’t make the word more acceptable; the parallel women’s movement of the time was divided over whether or not it was especially offensive to women or whether it should be reclaimed from the verbal toilet. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s foul-mouthed alter-egos Derek and Clive preferred to keep it there, and it only tended to slip into the mainstream during live TV broadcasts, such as the infamous invasion of the David Frost stage by the ‘Yippies’ and their assorted underground followers in 1970.
Forty-five years on from ‘Oz’ editor Felix Dennis becoming the first person to say the word on British television, cunt retains its X-rated mystique, one of the few words in the English language that has never lost its appeal to shock in certain social situations. For that fact alone, it’s pretty special.
Petunia Winegum
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May 30, 2015 at 8:49 pm -
Such words are, of course, only taboo in ‘polite society’ – elsewhere they are often part of the everyday lingua franca, especially in many school playgrounds (they certainly were when I was allowed in them).
For part of my life I led a split existence – professionally, when mixed-gender office-based, I conformed to the ‘polite society’ norms, including the avoidance of such words and phrases, as did everyone else. Outside of that, I moved in the world of the motor trade and motor-sport, where there was no word considered unacceptable, indeed it was expected that the most extreme ones would feature in most conversations at some point: again I conformed to that different norm, that’s what communications is all about. I recall one motor-engineer reporting on a gearbox saying, “Fuck, the fucking fucker’s fucked”, thus successfully using almost every variant of the F-word within a single five-word phrase – but no-one remarked on it, such was the common acceptance-level in that environment.
Possibly due to this exposure, I am impossible to shock by words alone – words are a variable currency, they have different values in different contexts, but they convey no harm of themselves, and those who think so generally have an unbalanced view of the world. I continue to be shocked by many other facets of human behaviour, particularly its propensity to cruelty in many forms, but a mere choice of words can never do that. Feel free to use any words in any post anytime, I for one will never be offended simply by their use.
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May 30, 2015 at 9:37 pm -
Captain Sensible got away with it, on TOTP no less . Listen carefully from around 2m10s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291ET6Py6H8 -
May 30, 2015 at 10:23 pm -
Probably the most appropriate illustration for the word. The teeth make it scary …
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May 30, 2015 at 10:36 pm -
The excellent ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ tackles that prickly word in – if memory serves – another episode to the one mentioned above.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, having already worked with Larry on the long-running network-show ‘Seinfeld’, is encouraged by him to sign-up to a new cable-sitcom. Freed from the tight restrictions on ‘acceptability’ imposed by NBC – although they had managed to penetrate them once by almost inserting a ‘vulva’ – Louis-Dreyfuss shows genuine excitement at the prospect of wrapping her mouth around cunt for the first time, rolling her tongue around it as she imagines the previously forbidden delights to be found there.Being in Spain, I’ve come to re-think my feelings towards ‘bad language’; the worst swear word here has no effect on me as I haven’t grown-up associating it with this, that or the other. But a simple word such as “idiota” – usually meant in a ‘you silly billy’ kind of way – still makes me bristle as I can’t shake the abusive connotation in my mind. Meanwhile, the Spanish cunt – coño, not Rajoy – is also a catch-all word exclaimed as we might say “God!”, and is acceptable for TV-presenters & the like.
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May 30, 2015 at 11:07 pm -
And there was also the ‘Beloved Cunt’ typo episode.
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May 30, 2015 at 11:36 pm -
“It’s a typo! It’s a typo!”
I’d forgotten that one completely! Downloading as we speak… aren’t computers fucking great?!?
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May 30, 2015 at 11:00 pm -
Petunia, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, you need to stop fucking swearing…. You foul mouthed fucking cunt!
Now on a more spiritual/enlightened note…
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May 30, 2015 at 11:12 pm -
That was fucking brilliant.
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May 30, 2015 at 11:26 pm -
Thank you, it’s a fucking pleasure Pet! You mentioned the late, great Dud and Pete/Derek and Clive….
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May 31, 2015 at 12:40 am -
Personally I find such twee names as ‘front bottom’ or ‘twinkle’ far more offensive than good old anglo-saxon terms. Mind you, I tend to use ‘cunt’ solely to describe an unpleasant person and not female genitalia.
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May 31, 2015 at 12:49 am -
Yeah, it always seems much more appropriate (hence accompanying photo)!
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May 31, 2015 at 7:43 am -
It’s fun to literally call some offensive fool “A complete and utter ladies front bottom!” or better still use a diseases biological Latin name. They have to stop and think, and so many people are way out of practice thinking.
(Evil chortle)
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June 1, 2015 at 12:21 am -
“…so many people are way out of practice thinking…”
That’s assuming with some of them that they ever possessed the ability.
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May 31, 2015 at 2:47 am -
Petunia did you ever visit the website of Citizens United against Nannying Tyrants ?
http://nannyingtyrants.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html
I remember some folks weren’t real fond of Jay’s chosen acronym.
:>
MJM -
May 31, 2015 at 3:21 am -
Does anyone remember Lloyd bridges in Sea Hunt in the sixties the words made i laugh!
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May 31, 2015 at 6:07 am -
Let us suppose some organisation – a bank, an energy company, or the like – overcharges you big time and then flatly refuses to withdraw the bill even though it is clear the bill is wrong. In the course of time they then resort to the law, and eventually bailiffs appear at your front door. The bailiffs accept you are unable to satisfy them with monetary payment; they remove goods (TV, freezer, fridge, washing machine, cooker, all furniture, beds, carpets etc) within your home equal to the amount owed.
In such circumstances what exactly does one call said bank or energy company? Rascals, cads, bounders even?
Words like cunt, twat, and adjectives like fucking came into our language for a reason and are an essential part of an articulate individual’s vocabulary. We should not shy away from these words.
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May 31, 2015 at 7:52 am -
HBO and other US channels seem to be doing their best to make this word just the same as any other expletive – I’ve lost count of the times it’s appeared in ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘Penny Dreadful’!
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May 31, 2015 at 8:05 am -
From a company disciplinary code of the ’80s; ‘minor offence- using abusive language which cause offence’. Given that at least three languages were in common use on site in question it’s a wonder there weren’t more problems. The only one I can recall was a conversational reference to kaffirs, which caused real offence.
Last week, while manning a stall in a rainstorm, our space was invaded by a child who seemed incapable of speaking unless shouting & and effing. Didn’t like it.
With a lifetime in industry, I don’t think there’s much I haven’t heard, but somehow hearing the same from women & children seems wrong. Similarly the careless use of such language in front of women & children.
But then I’ll open doors for women even if they glare at me. Just can’t help it.
Always good to get one over the sisterhood.-
May 31, 2015 at 9:04 am -
Brings to mind the popular initiation rite applied to junior female admin clerks – the new recruit would be asked to pop her head into the all-male General Office and enquire loudly, “Has anyone seen Mick Hunt?”. You can imagine the responses and some resultant face-reddening.
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May 31, 2015 at 10:30 am -
Not sure the sisters would let that go today, Mudplugger.
Public evisceration & removal of private parts by hungry rats at the very least for the offender.
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May 31, 2015 at 9:19 am -
Offended Blocked Dwarf (above a decibel level only normally experienced when standing next to a jet engine ): “TURN THAT FUCKING OBSCENE DIN OFF! JETZT! SOFORT!”
Youngest Errant Dwarf With PA Speakers coupled to his stereo: “b-bb-B-U-T DaaaaAAAD, it’s only ‘Slim’!”
Blocked Dwarf: “Slim DUSTY wrote THAT?!?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E0aZ387M_I…and when you say “Dylan” he thinks you’re talking about…
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May 31, 2015 at 9:54 am -
Cute wedge-shaped ‘cunt’ is simply from the Greek root ‘CUNeform’.
With timeless femme power perfectly described in the babe poster that film-effects man tRevolting had on his lab-wall in the minor classic “Blow Out”, 1981. ” The Lure Of The ‘V’ ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_Out
Real-meanwhile, after millenia of humanity living in close families and communities. Today’s 21st Century so called ‘adult’ bent mainstream JUST decides, that sneaky kids can’t possible know what BIG sis does with her fancy beau, OR what goes on behind the bike sheds?!
Today’s so called ‘adults’ need edgjukashun, not us wized up Bash Street kids always WAY ahead of the game.
So called ‘modern’ uptight Brit dad to wized up 12 yr old son, “Er, Ur nearly 13 now, and I have to talk to U, about, er…SeX?”
“OK Dad. What don’t U understand?!”
So called ‘modern’ uptight Brit mum to kids, “This 18+ vid’s not for U – cunt-ains SeX, Vile-ence, Swearing’” “Wot? Like in our skoolyard?!”
Ever boring mastur-debateable ‘SeX & Vile-ence’? But don’t forget other Rockin 50s BIG bent-moral panics – Rock & Roll itself, and HORROR Comix?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_comics
Wow! Mad Dawg Rabid Rupe, is there NUTHIN new we can SCARE ’em with under our sacred SUN, my son?
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May 31, 2015 at 9:58 am -
A picture paints a thousand words…that brought a wry smile to my face. Thanks PW.
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May 31, 2015 at 10:09 am -
May 31, 2015 at 10:19 am -
Petunia, Anna et al., combining the ‘The Lost Lexicon of England’ and this post you may be keen to know the origins of ‘cunt’:
http://gavincorder.blogspot.co.uk/2005/10/quaint-am-i.html
“Since I’ve been called quaint, and because I’m a clever bastard who knows this kind of shit, I thought you might like to know that quaint once meant cunt.”
A good read from a few years back.
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May 31, 2015 at 11:07 am -
You have to remember that such words are used far more often as a personal insult than as a anatomical definition, and in our modern politically correct world it is frowned on to actually insult anyone for fear they have some sort of minority status.
I still remember the DJ trap of an album by a band called Caravan, the title ‘Cunning Stunts’ caught out a number of people.
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May 31, 2015 at 12:37 pm -
Fascinating Aida have a song, deploring the dubious practices of our largest corporations.
Companies Using Nifty Taxation Schemes
C.U.N.T.S
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May 31, 2015 at 10:40 pm -
I’ve always had a soft spot for the word. It has a peculiar charm that I cannot account for.
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May 31, 2015 at 10:54 pm -
It is a peculiar chasm with a soft spot that many take scant account of. Or that’s the word…
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