The 'C'-Word: One of Television's Last Taboos

By Neville Dean, PA News


John Lydon broke one of the last taboos of television by using the “c”-word live on air during I’m A Celebrity .. Get Me Out Here!
His outburst on the ITV show last night is bound to infuriate media watchdogs and attract the attention of the television regulator Ofcom, the guardian of broadcasting standards.

Research by the Broadcasting Standards Commission has shown that a huge majority of people still regard the c-word as the most severe and offensive swear word.

Controversy and outrage have followed quickly every time it has been broadcast since it was first aired on British television by Channel 4 eight years ago, during the Irvine Welsh drama The Granton Star Times.

The channel dared to air the profanity again in 1999 when two characters in Sex in the City uttered the word, while in 2002 the model and actress Caprice let the c-word slip during an interview on the ITV show This Morning.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2488441

Can we assume that is the same as an all too frequently used derogatory word-- used by misogynists against women in this country? Or something else?

All of the times I have used the word and all of them that I've heard
it used (as far as I recall), the subject has either been male or
neuter - i.e., I cannot recall a single time that it referred to a
woman/girl/lady.

I have been known to call my computer (or components thereof) by that
name, similarly other inanimate objects - especially if they "caused"
me pain by failing to move out of my way :-) - but never (knowingly)
a woman.

(Edit: The possible exception is collective use - e.g., "a right bunch
of c**ts" which may or may not include female members.)

Maybe that's just me or maybe it's a cultural thing - perhaps the
British male tends to use other words when swearing at a female?

Nihil

hig priestess were called that and words like Cunning came from it athere is a great book about Feminism called Cunt by inga musico i highly recomend it

cunt??, what about "cock" or "cum"

"acceptable" as well. Both terms are now devoid of anything but a very negative context...

and is a poor excuse for using a word that offends many many women and hopefully some decent men.

ihave read

I don't like to have it applied to me. Ever. Because I know the disrespect and degradation that modern speakers mean by it.

n/t

Just as many in the black community have done with nigga and made it into a term of endearment in their community. The feminist community should take back the meaning of cunt and make it a positive again.

It's much better than calling for the word police which makes a movement look silly and weak to the outside population.

The N word is still offensive as hell. It's a slave word. It's a word that says we aren't even people. I hate it when young black men use that word and I never fail to tell them so.

I agree the C word is extremely offensive as well and I never hear anyone I associate with use it.

I'm sorry, but the goal should be erasing the hatred and not erasing a word that you've come to associate with it. Making people say n-word or c-word won't change shit. You'll still have bigoted assholes out there doing bigoted things, you just won't be able to recognize them as easily because they know not to say the n-word.

Words are all in how you use them. There's any number of slurs people can and have called me. Did I get pissed everytime they were used? No, it depends on the context and the manner they're used. Words don't mean shit unless you give them meaning.

I won't use their damn language and I won't have it used around me. In fact, I guarantee I will be in your face if you do -- black or white, big or little. Use the N word at your own peril. THAT is how it must be. Perhaps the bigoted motherfuckers who use it will realize overtime that it is a no-no and that it is unacceptable in a civilized society. Methinks the same goes for the C word.

I HAVE reclaimed this word. I don't allow it.

I understand your point about empowerment, but some things should just be done away with.

I'm not saying private individuals should be policed for what flag they fly or what words they use, but we sure don't need them forced on us over the airwaves or by public speakers.

And you're right some things need to be done away with, but you're focusing on doing away with the wrong things. Pointing the finger and yelling racist or misogynist everytime someone uses those words regardless of the context will do nothing to erase racism or misogynism.

Hell my girlfriends about as radical a feminist as you can get and she uses cunt all the time. It's a word, and what matters is how you use the word and the sentiment behind it not the word itself. That's what needs to be the focus.

Hell, if you don't want to hear swear words or whatever that's fine, don't watch the show, but making it verbotten because you don't like it is a little overboard.

Also check out Chapelle Show on Comedy Central to see what I mean about context and such.

Using that word doesn't make her an adult. It doesn't make her a woman. It makes her common.

And common use of either the C word or the N word doesn't take away the pain it causes others.

You are free to use it in your world. I am free to go after ANY TV show or network that uses either. I have and I will.

here i am.

the ole stars and bars.

personally ive heard it used way too many hateful times out of the mouths of white folk for me to be comfortable saying it.


but about CUNT!!! oh how i love that word. i love my cunt. i love other women's cunts. they are the best things on the planet and i can not say that word enough. cunt cunt cunt.

i suggest everyone (the gals at the least) to read Cunt by inga musico. i cant say it was the best book ever but i did take some great lessons from it.

presided over by a very progressive, intellectual and somewhat devilish Mr. Guinn who had not yet entered our classroom, we observed the words "piss" and "shit" had been writ large on the blackboard (which was actually green.)

There was considerable tittering and speculation about who of our company could have had the temerity to scribe such controversial things in plain sight of everyone (this in 1958.)

Some expressed a desire to leap up and erase the patently offensive and vulgar nouns but nobody was brave enough to do so, worrying that our erstwhile mentor might burst into the room while the criminal was expunging the evidence. So we sat there in varying degrees of trepidation waiting for the inevitable.

We had not long to perspire over the consequence, Mr. Guinn flung open the door and entered - glanced at the 'green' board and faced us with a huge grin. "You might be wondering who wrote those words on the board" he began as we all sat, horrified and attempting to find a hole in the floor into which to dissolve.

To our astonishment, he continued, "I wrote them before class, and I think it might be useful to study how these particular words have evolved from everyday innocent usage to their current and apparent status of being obscene." (I paraphrase, as I do not recollect all his actual words verbatim, but no doubt the gist is accurate.) This followed by a most intriguing discussion on philological and semantic changes. We loved Mr. Guinn.

He subsequently got into some hot water for assigning "Catcher in the Rye" a few years later. Many of us who had been in his classes became involved in defending him...that's another story.
;-)

Anyone notice that the "vulgar" words are of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon origin - prick, cunt, fuck - while the "proper" words are from Latin - penis, vagina, coitus?

Any clue as to why that is?

Swear words are often referred to just as "Anglo-Saxon" here. And "vulgar" itself is just the Latin for "common".
After the Norman invasion, Anglo-Saxon was the language of the majority, while French was the language of the ruling class (and Latin the educated class). Gradually, they merged into modern English.

i never say it.

i've heard many many women say it though.

similar to af-ams & the N word.

All this bunch of crap about the "F" word and the "L" word and the "C" word is so ludicrous and ridiculous that it surprises me that it is coming out of the mouth of adults....

I mean I can just see the news conference:

"Well, Mr. 'Kay', you said that Mr. T said the 'C' word to Mrs. 'Bee' and Mr. 'Jay'?"


What kind of idiocy is this..?

These buncha "holier than thou" neophytes are going to have kids growing up speaking like :

"Hey Mom can I have some 'J' that's not too 'S' or has a lot of 'P' in it?"

Words are only as offensive as you allow them to be....
Unbelievable

I'm sorry, I guess there are just some people in the world who still believe in a certain amount of class, who don't feel that television should be as crass as possible, and who want their children to be taught to be respectful, and kind and courtious, and not rude, crude and coarse. Not that television is a teacher, but I would like my children to be able to watch television with the family sometimes without being embarrassed or feeling like it is delivering the completely wrong message. It's not just about using good judgment with children, its that there's almost nothing on, even during primetime hours that I feel is family friendly.

Television has become a disgusting cesspool of lowest-common-denominator idiot programming. He goes for the cheap laugh, the disgusting comedy, the rude language, and substitutes sleaze for quality. Personally, I don't believe there should be any programming on network tv worse than the equivalent of a PG-13 movie.

I don't want to sit down to watch television and be bombarded with fucks, shits, cunts, dicks, and all of kinds of language that I don't enjoy listening to all the time. Sure I swear sometimes like everyone else, but that I don't mean I want television to constantly trying to see how much crudeness it can get away with! I don't want to sit down and watch sleazy trash shows or shows that exploit women or insult my intelligence.

Basically television is a lot like Beavis and Butthead Do America, which is fine in moderation. But I kind of long for television that's a little more sophisticated. Call it, Mystic River television. Right now there is almost nothing sophisticated or even artistic on television. It is just a glut of low-brow idiocy that makes me want to get rid of my television for good.

if all the programming that has gotten more profane over time didn't sell it would have been cancelled faster than a Dennis Miller appreciation party.

Frankly Selwynn I share similar values with you, but beating the dog everytime it scratches isn't going to solve your problem...You got to kill the fleas....

As long as people want this kind of crap on TV it will continue to get worse. And some of the people whose job it is to "regulate" this and make sure it's not out of control are some of the people who actually create a market for it by watching....


Some examples of this wonderful TV programming that we all watch are :

-Any and all so-called "reality" TV shows (I'm the star of my very own reality every day I don't need to see it on TV)


-Any show that puts a bunch of rejects in a house together so you can watch what happens (Queequeg and Gary Coleman in the same room...how exciting)


-Survivor (Frankly I use to find Gilligan's Island more entertaining)



And so many others...C'mon...be honest...you (as in viewers) created this monster...Don't try to flush it down the toilet now because it's out of control...deal with it...


disclaimer: I can say this because for a long time I've had cable/satellite...Ever since the taste/quality line on the graph of network programming started it's decline.

I've never liked nor watched any of the shows you mentioned. And just because I'm in the minority in my opinion on television doesn't mean I wouldn't support people who are interested in making television look more like I would like it to look. Does that mean I think we'll be succesfull? Of course not. :)

What I really need to get is cable/satellite and then block out all the channelsI don't care about, leave the ones I do. That would mean I would have the history, sci-fi, discovery and learning challen, all the news channels, and that's about it.

From your post:
"It is just a glut of low-brow idiocy that makes me want to get rid of my television for good."

So do it !!!!! Or at least have it off more than on. It's a little tough at first, but in a short time you dont even miss it! Television exists for one purpose, and that is to sell us things we don't need. If humans need something, we usually find it, without the television yelling at us. I blame the television for most of "the dumbing down" of Americans that I see all around us. I could go, but I think you see my point. Do yourself and your kids a favor, throw the tv out the window !!!!

I was never "addicted" to TV. I watch 2-3 hours a week most weeks.

The market for entertainment that is based upon shock value would decline. But in America, people get bent out of shape about the slightest ounce of nipple. It is completely okay for a television program to show breasts, but they cannot show the nipple. Does that make sense? Is all of the breast's sexuality centered around the nipple? The fact is that there were several commercials that played during the game that featured more skin than that. Much more. What we saw from Janet Jackson was her left breast. If the nipple had been covered, there would have been little outrage. But it wasn't. A few years ago the rapper Lil' Kim showed up at MTV's Video Music Awards with her right breast exposed save for the nipple, which was covered with a small patch of purple paint shaped like a flower. Outrage? Little, if any. Diana Ross literally jiggled Lil' Kim's exposed breast on national television. Reaction? Crickets.

But it was the Super Bowl of course, fine family fair that it is. Kid Rock thrust his head through an American flag and wore it like a poncho. Many ads played featured scantily clad women and toilet humor. Where is the outrage at the companies that produced those commercials? Please, tell me, because I don't see it.

Language and its attached stigma is just a retention of traditional values. Imagine if someone had said c*** on TV in the 50s? The 60s? The 70s? Even the 80s? They'd be lucky if they got away with damn or hell. If they had said c*** on television their careers would have been ruined.

But we, here in 2004, are in the society of the spectacle. We like controversy and we like to feel uncomfortable. We feed off of the negative energy and reaction that controversy and shock generate. Ever craned your neck to see a traffic accident? If you said no, you're probably lying. So when someone says c*** on television or exposes their breast, our natural, desired reaction is shock and outrage. And then people hear that shock and outrage, and watch or listen, and are shocked and outraged themselves. And it becomes like a massive game of telephone, ending at the entertainment behemoths, who hear shock and outrage and think ratings and publicity and lots of money and infamy. It's a massive game that the American public plays right into. We react exactly how they want us to react. We are part of the problem.

I don't disagree with your overall point; in fact, I agree. But at the same time, I am aware that the problem isn't with the industry. It's with the people who are waiting to be fed by the industry.

I love your post, but I don't think its an either/or.

Thank you.

My thoughts exactly.

EVERYONE called eachother a c***. It was common. It wasn't frowned upon. It didn't really mean anything. Lydon himself said they called eachother that because, really, we are all c***s. To them, it was the equivalent of calling someone a dick.

You know, I was actually surprised to find out so many people are so offended by that word. Oh well. I suppose listening to so many punks say it for so long has desensitized me. It does sound less offensive in a British accent though.

I'm soooo tired of justifying insensitivity by "everybody does it". That didn't fly with my parents, and I'm surprised that it flies with adults today.

Blacks finally got it through people's heads that using the "N" word is just plain ugly and hurtful. Why cannot people get the same about words that denigrate women?

Desensitizing everyone doesn't add to a caring society.

Kanary

Because I'm not sure but I think I've heard blacks call eachother that before. What you meant to say was that blacks finally got it through white people's head that using the N word is ugly and hurtful. And therefore, the white people have a slur that they can use against the black people. Wouldn't a better idea have been to make the word less offensive and hateful by shrugging it off or turning it into a positive term?

Tell people a word is dirty, and they might just use it that way.

And I was not justifying the use of that word just because everyone else did it. I was simply pointing out that Mr. Lydon comes from a different era and place, where that word took on a meaning that was different from what you automatically associate with it. C*** wasn't intended to be derogatory towards women. It was meant to be derogatory towards the person it was directed at. Should I be offended if a woman calls me a dick? Be cause she's making a derogatory remark about male genitalia or associating being a jerk with a penis?

All of this nonsense over language is ridiculous. They are words.

Instead of telling other people what they should and shouldn't be concerned about in terms of what is bothersome to them (a little bit of a control issue there?), maybe it would help this world be a more congenial place to actually *care* about how we affect each other. We've become such a sociopathic nation that we seem to take delight in pushing each other's buttons.

"All of this nonsense over language is ridiculous. They are words."

I suggest you go speak with people who are experts in the field of domestic violence. They will tell you that most often, physical violence is preceeded by verbal violence. WORDS are used to break people down, and to prepare them for accepting to be physically abused.

I gotta say it.... these are concepts that are certainly not esoteric by any means. Many books and articles have been written about these issues. To find these backwards attitudes so rampant on a "progressive" site is very discouraging.

Kanary

John Lydon was Johnny Rotten and they had a song called Pretty Vacant...
(snarling 'pretty va-CUNT')

Maybe Lydon was just being retro...it's very fashionable these daze...

I tend not to think that society/entertainment is getting MORE permissive, but the 'level' of permissiveness on television is entirely the work of a 1000 channel universe...

When their were only a handful of channels in the 60s and 70s, then the various Media Tsars had to be more respectful of the 'community standards'

But in all honesty, with the huge number of channels/choices, you can immune yourself from 'swearing' and 'bad taste' just as easily as you can immune yourself from newsreporting, infomercials, sports or any other market category you desire...

was swearing on live TV, back in 1976.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1140796,00.html

Quite possibly the Sex Pistols would never have got their start without this. The producers of '..Celebrity..' must have expected this.

You may think, when you're young, that you want people to be more insensitive.

However, the time will come in your life when something will happen to you and you will NOT want to be surrounded by insensitive and "immune" people.

There is a progression of insensitivity, and at some point it becomes sociopathology.

Since that is what we decry in the neocons, we would do well to look at ourselves in the mirror from time to time.

Kanary

so the same standard should apply. I already regard BUSH as an offensive word!

streakr

You don't hear that too often. It's all liberal this, and liberal that. It would be refreshing to hear whacked out, conservative, nut bars called such on TV...or we could call them stupid cunts. Either one would work for me.

is the most insulting word to call a woman. The use of it started out to be a means of degrading women. It falls into the same catagory as the n-word. I would guess my opinion puts me somewhere near a hardrock between Hollywood Babylon and the Christian Fundies.

can I call Ann Coulter a c*** again without getting my post tombstoned?

insult Coulter because she is a f***ing Bush whore, not for being a WOMAN.

The sexism here continues to amaze.

Truly amaze.

I can't help but wonder what it's going to take to get the awareness level raised.

Kanary, with another resounding NO!

the vagina. But for some reason words like "cunt" and "pussy" are more offensive than "dick" and "cock."

shows how dumb I am. Cunt?.....ok, i can believe that

CBC TV had nudity in the 60's. If it's in a "documentary" context you can say and show pretty much anything.

I was watching the Documentary Channel last night and they were doing a thing on exotic dancers and porn chat website owners and performers. They said the "f" word and the "c" word and half a dozen other words and showed full frontal nudity and various sex acts (with the occasional bit of blurring) and a whole bunch of other stuff that if I talked about, would turn this into a sex thread.

The show was running between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. with a repeat later on in the evening.

The next time you pass a restaurant that says Country Cookin or you listen to COUNTry Music, or you see someone say they are KUNTA/KIN/COUNTY folk, its all derived from the same place. Just used later on to demean women by patriarchal societies (like the one we are in now).
Women, just take it back and own the word as your own. It was once considered sacred.
ancient goddess of India when women were considered sacred.



Cunt: A bit from Barbara Walker on the word cunt

Derivative of the Oriental Great Goddess Cunti, or Kunda, the Yoni of the Uni-verse. From the same root came country, kin, and kind (old english, cyn, gothic kuni). Related forms were Latin cunnus, Middle English cunte, Old Norse and Phrygian kunta, Basque cuna. Other cognates are "cunabula" a cradle, or earliest abode; "Cunnia" a Roman Goddess who protected children in the cradle; "Cunctipotent", all powerful (i.e. having cunt magic); "Cunicle" a hole or passage; "Cuniculate" penetrated by a passage; "Cundy", a coverted colvert; also cunning, kenning, and ken: knowledge, learning, insight, rememberance, wisdom. Cunt is "not slang, dialect or any marginal form, but a true language word and of the oldest stock." --- Barbara Walker, Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

They all (well, those I have access to - Merriam-Webster online, Chambers, Oxford) say 'country' comes from the Latin 'contra' - land that is 'on the opposite side'.

The derivation from the same root as 'kin' seems on more sound ground. See http://members.lycos.co.uk/mathunt/dissertation.html for a lengthy discussion - he says 'cu' is "quintessentially associated with femininity", and may be related to 'gyn'.

Whilst I don't want my kids to hear that word in the middle of
a teatime cartoon or whatever, this whole thing has been so overblown
as to be almost unbelievable!

The word itself is rude, crude and not for polite conversation but,
outside of a few pretentious academics, it is never used in polite
conversation anyway - just in situations where vulgarity will usually
be found. These typically include highly emotional confrontations,
often with people who like to "shock" or who are otherwise incapable
of expressing themselves without recourse to swearing.

Anyone disagree so far?

The current media flap is centred on "the c-word" (ye gods!) being
used by an ex-celebrity (who made his name by shocking people) on a
programme dedicated to gross activities, to innuendo and to the
embarrassment of publicity seeking has-beens or wannabes.

This wasn't the news - that would just be people arguing over who was
responsible for KILLING and MAIMING innocent children). This wasn't
a soap opera where millions of people are mindlessly hanging on each
ridiculous line of dialogue ("rape? drugs? crime? certainly sir!").
This wasn't a comedy sketch by a well-known "entertainer" (plenty of
other swear words in most of those).

No, this was another so-called "reality" programme.

Eating bugs & eyeballs is "family entertainment"?

Hyping a "is it or isn't it" sexual liaison is "family entertainment"?

If you are prepared to let your children watch this then how can you
be so hypocritical as to claim that one particular word is offensive?

Get a life people!

Nihil

It appears that the pressure has been too much ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3461129.stm

Tut, tut, tut ...

Isn't it a shame that the words "forty-five minutes" didn't trigger
the same urge to retire?

"Lydon's expletive outburst earlier this week came after he realised he was not going to be evicted."

Now he's just left, rather than wait for the viewers, who he described as "fucking cunts", to vote him out.

The original incident had been reported to me saying that he swore
because the girl had been voted out - i.e., in sympathy not in envy.
Whilst the "rude word" farce is still overblown, at least his actions
make a little more sense now.

Thanks,

Nihil

that are so childish as to be offended by a word?

GROW UP!