Swearwords and genitals, UK & US

[MacCruiskeen]

This keeps cropping up.

It's not good to use the c-word in reference to women, ever, even in the UK. So it's not good to use it of Scarlett Johansen (as in a recent thread) or even of Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton. The word is best used very seldom and very selectively, most effectively at the end of a polite sentence.

Brief guide to UK usage:

A prick is an unpleasant male person of no significance.

A cunt is an unpleasant male person who can damage you.

Bruce Robinson, the author and director of Withnail and I, is an expert swearer and understands this perfectly. (Btw, the anonymous guy who introduces this instructive video 73-second compilation comes across as a bit of a prick, but the rest of it is well worth 55 seconds of your time.)

[Agent Orange Cooper]

Sure you wanna quit playin', Jack?

[coffin_dodger]

Second what Mac said. The word is never applied to females in the UK, except by arseholes.

i.e.
he's a right nasty _
that guy is a _, plain and simple
don't be such a miserable _ !
he's being a right _ about it
that's a bit of a _ish thing to say, mate
etc

[Iamwhomiam]

And in all its uses, it disparages women, especially so when used to emasculate men.

[stefano]

To me prick has connotations of self-importance and pretension that dick or cock don't. Maybe because it looks like prig?

[Novem5er]

I'm only really bothered by cursing when words are exclusively used for women. I'm a guy, but I have a lovely wife and two lovely daughters. I also play video games on occasion and have to suffer through "gamer speak". I absolutely hate it when guy gamers call female characters bitches. Keep in mind, they are not even calling female GAMERS bitches, but rather imaginary characters with 3D-rendered female bodies, and they still pull out the B and C words on the regular.

Example:

Gamer runs his character around a corner, guns blazing, and gets taken out by an opposing player with a guy avatar: "Arggh! Freaking guy got me - that asshole!"
Gamer runs his character around a corner, guns blazing, and gets taken out by an opposing player with a FEMALE avatar "Agh, that B**!!!! Someone get that B!"

I notice a remarkable difference in how a lot of gamers react to female avatars, let alone real female players, and it's usually disgusting.

[82_28]

Hahaha. I'm a semi gamer myself. But RPGs I always pick a female character (Oblivion, Fallout, Skyrim, come to mind).

[Novem5er]

Hahaha. I'm a semi gamer myself. But RPGs I always pick a female character (Oblivion, Fallout, Skyrim, come to mind).

A lot of gamers do For many games, it's not even a preference choice. The recent major release, Overwatch, is a competitive multiplayer shooter with a strong sci-fi comic book tone. There are 21 characters that players get to choose from and each has their own special powers and weapons, everything from pulse rifles, to freeze guns, to giant hammers, and about half of these characters are female. So players chose a female character for any number of reasons, but usually because that particular weapon or skill is useful in the match, but over and over again I hear players insult these imaginary characters by calling them the B and C words.

In their minds, they aren't being insulting because the target is imaginary. They don't realize that their own bias is what's inspiring their choice of words.

[MacCruiskeen]

And in all its uses, it disparages women, especially so when used to emasculate men.

It is never, or practically never, used for that purpose. You are probably confusing it with the American English expression "pussy", which has very different uses and connotations.

[Cordelia]

I'll step briefly onto what appears to be a largely male dominated platform, and add my view. Which is that profanity is fine but applying offensive and obscene names (which I've done too) to an individual isn't. (And continually writing them in threads is just adding more graffiti swill.)

I think too that hearing, and reading, women called salacious, disparaging names is a very different experience for a woman than for a man. The stakes are higher, more threatening and potentially even violent, imo. This quote attributed to Margaret Atwood sums up that visceral core difference for me: "When she asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women, he answered, "They are afraid women will laugh at them." When she asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men, they said, "We're afraid of being killed."'

(fwiw It's usage is different in the U.S. and I don't recall ever hearing a male utter the c-word in my presence, although a woman friend once did--in front of a young child-- which shocked me enough to react.)

[Iamwhomiam]

And in all its uses, it disparages women, especially so when used to emasculate men.

It is never, or practically never, used for that purpose. You are probably confusing it with the American English expression "pussy", which has very different uses and connotations.

No Mac, I am not.

[MacCruiskeen]

^^
Fox Analyst On President Obama: "This Guy Is Such A Total Pussy, It's Stunning"

[Iamwhomiam]

You suggested I was confused; I answered that I am not. I am not arguing whether one word is a more appropriate term colloquially to be used to emasculate men, but that to use either disparages women while attempting to verbally emasculate men.

In my experience, more often than not, those who utilize such language are asses with a most limited vocabulary.

In the US, again, in my experience, such men do not use the 'c' word to demean men, only women. Such men who use profanity call other men the 'p' word, and usually with some hyperbolic descriptor added, like 'big' or 'huge'.

[MacCruiskeen]

You are confused, and therefore confusing the issue. I am trying to imagine that Fox analyst calling Obama that other word and hoping to achieve the same effect as he did by calling him a pussy. It's quite a funny thought.

It's possible I'm wrong about US usage (though certainly not about UK usage, as c_d confirms). So please link to any one (1) example of a man in the US using the c-word to "emasculate" another man.

I'm genuinely curious now. Maybe in recent years the USA has gotten even weirder than I thought.

[Iamwhomiam]

Yeah, Mac, I'm the one who's confused.

It's possible I'm wrong about US usage (though certainly not about UK usage, as c_d confirms). So please link to any one (1) example of a man in the US using the c-word to "emasculate" another man.

In the US, again, in my experience, such men do not use the 'c' word to demean men, only women.