eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words

[Baker, John]

Women have told me that "cunt" is quintessentially offensive when a man is fighting with his girlfriend and calls her that.  I think this is partly because "cunt" reduces the woman to her sexuality.  There is no similar term reducing men to their sexuality.  Even "gigolo," the closest term I can think of, doesn't come that close.  Cunt combines the opprobrium that our language attaches to sexually active women (whether or not the woman is actually sexually active) - compare "slut" for a sexually active woman and "player" for a sexually active man - with the implication that there is no other aspect of her worth mentioning.
 
Note that "cunt," "prick," and "bitch," when used in their literal senses, are alike in that they are not necessarily offensive, though the first two, and in America even the third, tend to be avoided.
 
 
John Baker
 

 

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