Letters to the Editor
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"The word cunt is also sometimes applied to men, and the word is more degrading and hurtful when it is applied to them than when it is applied to women."
Well that would rather depend upon how the receiver takes the term, wouldn't it? But you rather make my point. Cunt as applied to a man calls him a sort of woman. It is used to apply a sort of misogyny to insult a man. If women were more valued and sex alone were the context, wouldn't it be a compliment?
You are talking about talking "dirty" in the context of sex. That is not the same as taking a body part used for sex, an outlet for menstuation, and childbirth out of context and diminishing the complexity of a human being and a circumstance involving politics and calling that person a body part.
Remember those conversations that we had in other threads about rape about how penetration is different than other forms of sexual assault? Perhaps women respond differently to such insults because the vagina is a place that can be invaded, if you will.
The other day, in a thread on abortion, I compared the fetus to a parasite and some people were much offended. However, in many ways, both biological and cultural, a woman is reminded that her body is not wholly her own. That body part that you worship can be used as a birth canal or misused as a trophy of war. (Remember Ruwanda?) To many women, the word "cunt" is like a blow. Some may enjoy its use during sex, but many others would not.
Women's struggle is still, after all this time, to be seen as someone beyond a sexual object. For women this struggle is not only cultural but personal. It is a war within our own souls.
This is why that word can hurt.