According to a Twitter conversation today, “cunt” is not offensive or derogatory towards women in Britain and Australia. And my point that using “cunt” — used as an insult — is directly sexist and misogynistic was completely unheard. I even said that using “cunt” to reclaim the feminine (because its root means woman and queen), that is one thing. But here in America, “cunt” is never used to exalt women, only to degrade women and to infer a man’s weakness or asshole-ish nature. 

This is a sore point with me because other words such as bitch or whore or almost universally used to degrade women, or to insinuate a man is less manly. For instance when a guy gets called a “son of a bitch”, the emphasis is not the fact that he is a son or male child but that he derives his bad nature from being born from woman.

Squaw is an extremely derogatory word for American Indian women, even though you can still hear the word said in western films and the word is still in official place names for towns and rivers. 

 

 

“Whore” is thrown at women who say “no” to one man’s advances while accepting another’s. “Whore” is the epitaph spewed at a woman who relegates a man to the mythological “friend zone”. “Whore” is what men call women they deem to be selfish due to following their own wishes or hopes and dreams instead of dropping everything to tend to the man’s concerns or demands. “Whore” is what women are called when we demand access to <a href=”http://arousedwomanblog.com/2013/05/07/news-fda-emergency-contraception-plan-for-plan-b-contradicts-court-ruling/&#8221; target=”_blank”>birth control</a> and <a href=”http://arousedwomanblog.com/2015/08/09/news-planned-parenthood-defeats-ted-cruz-other-misogynists-in-congress/&#8221; target=”_blank”>abortion</a>. “Whore” is thrown at women on social media all the time for speaking up for equality, for being a single mom, for simply existing without the need to rely on a man. (Ask me how I know.)