Body part lingo (language!)

[InverseHellion]

Bajingo? (Okay it's official I watch too much Scrubs)

[Dreamstalker]

Honestly, if you ever want to read a long list of obnoxious - and frequently laughable - list of synonyms for genitalia of both genders, try reading some erotic fiction sometimes. Extra points if you can slog through erotic fanfiction (and especially erotic slash fanfiction) without questioning your sanity.

Oh, yes. Awhile ago, there was a particularly bad piece of Ghostbusters slash/hetfic (don't ask) that left most of that community wondering whether it was meant as an exercise in what not to do. According to the original author, it was meant to be a serious attempt--it was anything but.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Bad sex fic = Celebrian. That is all. O_o

[the_std]

The way I see it, words like that only have the power to offend if you give it to them. If someone calls me a cunt, I can decide that word is offensive to me because I have a vagina and they want to insult that part of my body. Or I can decide that word is offensive to me because the person who said it is trying to demean me and chose a word they thought would shock me. Or I can decide that I don't care, because it's not worth the time and effort.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't be offended by insults. It's healthy and right to have self-respect and to defend yourself. I'm just one of those people who really, truly does not care what other people think, especially if they're just trying to insult me, so why even bother reacting to it? But that's just me.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm actually more offended by the use of the word "gay" as being something that can be used as an insult.

It's like this....I've been called a bitch and a cunt and a litany of other things. Don't really care. Yawn. However, it does offend me if you make a disparaging remark and equate it with being my being female. I dont' like it when I'm "forgiven" for being a bitch or being stupid because I'm a woman. I dont' like it when someone is "expected" to act uncivilized because they are a man. And I dont' like it when someone says "That's gay", or if they say (to paraphrase) "you suck therefore you must be gay." Why is it okay to equate "gay" with being bad or defective in some way? It's kind of on the same level as using the enn word, really. It denotes the same type of bigotry.

I guess my point is that the insulter feels that the word "gay" is a very bad thing to accuse someone of being. Same as "cunt". Someone who uses "cunt" as an insult clearly has negative connectations associated wtih that word. Which I guess then begs that question of why it's so much nastier to call someone a cunt than it is to call someone a dick?

And that brings me to another question: if you call somone a cunt, clearly it means something very different than if you call them a pussy. Usually, women are called the former (at least in the US) and men are called the latter. The former usage denotes a tough, bitchy, vindictive broad. The latter a coward and a wimp. Kind of interesting.

[Sylvia727]

Probably because "cunt" is a harsh sounding word, and is associated with the harsher female stereotypes - that they are naggers, that their hormones make them violent and unreasonable, that they secretly want to be men or that being a woman in a man's world is a constant fight. "Pussy" is a weak and wussy word. So it's associated with the weak female stereotypes - that they are pushovers and cowards, that they cannot stand up for themselves in a fight, and that they have no independence.

[Boozy]

Probably because "cunt" is a harsh sounding word, and is associated with the harsher female stereotypes..."Pussy" is a weak and wussy word.

"Pussy" sounds weak to your ears because it means weak when used in speech. "Cunt" sounds harsh because that's also how its used.

Words sound the way they do to us because of their meaning.

[Sylvia727]

"Cunt" is made up of sounds that seem harsh to English speakers. It has three plosives; k, n, and t, which are articulated strongly. This is why German sounds nasty to English speakers; it uses more harsh-seeming sounds. "Pussy" has two vowels and a silibant, which are articulated without the turbulant burst of air. Wikipedia on plosives, though the rest of the series uses different definitions than the ones I learned in my linguistics course.

[Dreamstalker]

The Bald-Headed Hermit and the Artichoke. All the sex synonyms you never wanted to know (I actually bought this thing for the sheer WTF value the first time I saw it...might still be around somewhere).

[AFPheonix]

Oh my god, if I pull a specific coworker's name this year for Secret Santa, I so totally know what I'm going to get him, and it ain't going to be the usual bottle of rum.