Cunt: A Cultural History
`’Cunt’ is perhaps the single most offensive and censored swearword in the English language: “Of all the four-letter words, CUNT is easily the most offensive” (Ruth Wajnryb, 2004). Our taboo surrounding the word ensures that it is rarely discussed, though, when it is, the superlatives come thick and fast: ‘cunt’ is “a word so hateful it can scarcely be uttered” (Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, 2000). Accordingly, Andrew Goldman calls ‘cunt’ “the mother of all nasty words” and “the most controversial word of all” (1999). For Tom Aldridge, it is “unarguably the most obscene [and] most forbidden word in English”, “the ultimate obscenity”, and “the nastiest four-letter word” (2001). John Doran describes it as “The most offensive word in the world”, “the worst word that anyone has ever been able to think of”, and “[the] most terrible of terrible words” (2002).’
May 14th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Thanks very much for your link! Much appreciated.