Michelle Malkin is certainly not a cunt

"Cunt" is a precise and unpretentious Anglo Saxon term for an excellent organ system, the benefits of which we all enjoy (directly and/or indirectly).

Whereas, "Michelle Malkin" denotes a pernicious race-baiting fascist who constitutes a blight upon the body politic. A fact duly noted by Roxanne.

The creature known as "Michelle Malkin" flatters itself to believe that anyone other than an angry Political Animal commenter associates said entity with such a glorious product of natural selection as the cunt.

Note to Republicans: You don't own the franchise just because you own a prototype.

Comments

[mudkitty]

Cunt used to be in comman usage. In the Bard's ROMEO AND JULIET, Juliet's mother say's "By my cunt I am your mother." Cunt's waaaay too good a word for Malkin.

[Marty]

You don't own the franchise just because you own a prototype.

Speaks volumes.

[Timothy Crider]

http://www.etymonline.com/

According to my research, the word in question left polite conversation in the Fifteenth century, and didn't become obscene until the Seventeenth.

Of, course, a friend of mine just confirmed that he once read that it means, "a whole festering with insects". However this is apocryphal, as I can't find any references to support this.

[nick]

The British (and Australian) use of 'cunt' as a pejorative (or ironic term of affection) tends to be stripped somewhat of misogynistic connotations, and is used much more often towards men than women. The modern exemplar being Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 'Derek and Clive' recordings.

I'd be loathe to call a woman a stupid fucking cunt, particularly in the US, but there are plenty of men who deserve the epithet. Having a non-NorthAmerican accent helps. Conversely, it's much easier for North Americans to call someone a goddamn cocksucking motherfucker.

[bitchphd]

Agreed.

[Robert S.]

Well said. I wish I'd thought to phrase my response to the jackass invloved that way.

[Timothy Crider]

I have to disagree. There are times that the only way to communicate a certain contempt for a human being of the opposite sex is to drop that particular insult on them. It always gets across that you are not happy.

And please, if you're really honest with yourself, you can sit down and fill up a whole phonebook with names of women you know who deserve the insult.

However this is in the context of our day to day lives, not "civil discourse". It was perfectly all right for me to use the insult when I told my ex, "Jesus Christ, you have got to be the stupidest cunt I have ever met."

And she was and still is. I'm not just talking out of anger. Okay, I am. So what.

However it is inappropriate for me to say in response to a hypothetical female blogger I disagree with, no matter how fallacious or disgusting their position, "Jesus Christ, what a fucking stupid cunt!" It's an ad hominen attack and can simply be rebutted by the hypothetical female calling me a "child-molesting, dogfucking, shit-stained, cuntlicker".

Then again it is fun, and makes everybody involved feel really good for a little while.

[Roxanne]

Would it be okay to call her a "nip" or a "chink" or "slanty-eyed"? NO. Liberal men would never ever do this. But, when it comes to gender-specific perjoratives, they have no problem whatsoever.

[A F(r)iend]

As a North American (United Statesian, damn, we need a name for this country, 229 years and we still don't have one), I would rarely, if ever, use the C word to describe a part of the body. I'd be much more likely to use it as a pejorative for a woman for whom the word bitch was inadequate.

A F(r)iend

PS: My preferred term for the body part is pussy unless I'm being clinical.

[Timothy Crider]

I use the term, "her place."

The important thing to remember is that none of these words have any place in polite conversation.

However I find the idea of not using certain words for reasons of political enlightenment, as opposed to just being polite, absurd. When one is using such language an attempt is being made to get across extreme emotion. I'm not going to hold back from using an effective slur because I don't want to offend anyone. The whole point is to offend the person you're insulting.

[Timothy Crider]

And I believe the official name of the nation is "The United States of America."

The people of this nation have been referring to themselves as Americans for about 229 years now.

[Linnet]

Question: how is calling a woman a "cunt" any different from calling a guy a "dick"?

To me it seems like "cunt" is a crude way of labeling a woman who behaves badly, just like "dick" is a crude way of labeling a man who behaves badly.

I'd take more umbrage at "pussy" than at "cunt," because "pussy" is usually used to connote cowardice, and there's no male body part that's used as a similar insult.

[Chris Clarke]

Question: how is calling a woman a "cunt" any different from calling a guy a "dick"?

Answer: try calling a random set of friends of either gender "dicks". Then take another equally large random group and call each of them "cunts." See which group laughs and buys you beer, and which group reacts extremely negatively.

This experiment valid only in the US. Your mileage may vary.

[A F(r)iend]

The whole fricking hemispere is America. We have Estados Unidos Mexicanos, at least they have a short name of Mexico. Our short name is United States which is inaccurate if the last election means anything.

A F(r)iend

[Timothy Crider]

It is a name. It doesn't have to make any sense that US nationals are the only ones called Americans on the continent. We've been doing it for two hundred years and most everyone else in this hemisphere agrees for practical reasons. We can probably find dozens examples of etymological oddities like this.

(I remember in college listening to the bizarre story of The Former Yugoslav Republic Known as Macedonia. Now that's a real controversy over what a nationality should be called.)

For example most every Canadian I've ever met does not like being referred to as an American. Likewise, I can't imagine the Mexican, Argentinan, Nicaraguan, Cuban, or anyone elses opinion being different for the average man on the street throughout the hemisphere.

Wasting valuable energy in picking battles over semantics like this doesn't do anyone any good.

[chris]

Tits.

I'm just a big fan of George Carlin and wanted to make sure we covered all seven in the one post/comments bit.

[chris]

Oh yeah. Piss, too.

[Timothy Crider]

George Carlin did come to my mind as well.

And I have to concur with Mr. Carlin, tits doesn't even belong on the list.

[razor]

Creature is a word for the grand and diverse range of life of multicellular animals from bats to zombies. It is an honorable word. Michelle Malkin is a thing, not a creature, though, the thing may also be a fascist racist baiter.

As the punch line of the lawyer joke has it, 'I'm a horse man myself.'

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

"Cunt" is the rudest one-word epithet I know I know in the North American English vernacular. I know it's not as rude in other English dialects. But honestly, I call someone a dick a least once a week to that person's face. Mostly, people laugh. Nobody has ever taken more than momentary offense. I would never call anyone a cunt unless I intended to alienate them for life.

Part of the reason I won't use "cunt" as an epithet is because it's meant to demean a person by associating them with something that ought to be considered good.

It's the same reason that I refuse to call anyone a cocksucker (or a pussy, for that matter)--even if the person I hold in contempt deserves an epithet of comparable strength. I've got no right demean the perfectly wholesome activity of cocksucking by using it to humiliate someone who deserves to be humiliated for some genuinely shameful behavior like lying or stealing or defaming.

[chris]

For the most part, I'm a fan of truth in expression as much as possible. So, calling someone a "lier" or "intellectually vapid" works. "Cretin" is always a good choice. I agree with Lindsay...no sense impugning lovely things. I wouldn't call someone "toro" (which is quite the sensual experience) in an effort to insult.

Further, the high ground is normally a good way to go. Although, sometimes you just have to call someone a "moron." There's really not getting around it.

[Axle71]

Connotations that words carry with them varies over time. It's the connotation, not the literal meaning, of this particular word that creates the avulsion to it. When deriding another person it seems to me that it is most effective when words with strong negative connotations are avoided altogether.

- Axlw71

[norbizness]

How about "choad-smoker"? Very generic non-specific. Same with fart-blossom, fart-lily, and turd-burglar.

[Treban]

Roxanne, I am a mostly liberal male and I would not dream of using gender/sexuality specific derogatories. For example I would refer to M. Malkin as a fucking moron not a cunt/bitch/whore. If I really don't like someone, such as Rush Limbaugh, I refer to them as say a cretinous lump of shit who makes cockroaches look good. I would not call him a cocksucker/fat fuck (well ok I have) or cunt/bitch/whore.

I do agree with Lindsay that "cunt" in this country is about as nasty as one can get. Something I have never comprehended though is why people use words that refer to sex and sexual organs (something I think most people get a lot of enjoyment out of) as derogatives. I know, i'm guilty too. I do not however like the use of gender specifics and though I am male and a liberal I choose not to use them thank you very much.

[Julian Elson]

How 'bout pigfucker: that's something virtually everyone -- Christians, especially Jews and Muslims, pro-animal welfare types, generally anyone -- can agree on is bad. It's race and sex neutral. It's snappy.

Of course, it might be somewhat insulting to pigs, since it's perfectly acceptable to be a pigfucker if you're a pig yourself. They don't understand insults in English, though, so their dignity won't be too offended.