Cunt. Cunt. Cunt. That’s how I’ll start this post. Did you gasp, cringe, squeal, or get uncomfortable? That would be most people’s reactions, today I’m going to dive into why that word is SO taboo.

It’s only right that I make a post discussing what I named my blog after, the C-word. ‘The c word’ is defined as “A vulgar slang word for a woman’s genitals or a person you dislike,” and is known to be up there amongst the most offensive words in English language. It is so vulgar, when it is spoken aloud, it’s commonly in a euphemism, ‘See You Next Tuesday.’ What makes the C word so offensive?

The exact origins of the word ‘cunt’ are unknown, there was an ancient Hindu Goddess named Kunti. Kunti is an important character in the Indian Sanskrit, the Mahabharata. She represented the power of the female body as she was the goddess of fertility and wisdom. She held intense female power, just by being present she could cause conception and painless childbirth. She was a self-generative mother who could bear children because of how strong her fertility power was, not because she was a ‘virgin.’

I decided to include the Goddess because of the symbolism she holds in relation the word. She is powerful and independent while also caring and nurturing. She embodied divine feminine power. Kunti was reffered to as ‘the Yoni of the Universe,’ yoni literally means ‘source of all life.’ The universe needs cunts!

There are also records from the early 1200s of a street in Oxford, England named Gropecuntlane. Allegedly this street was a popular place for prostitutes, and playwrights like Shakespeare and Chaucer included puns that playfully alluded to the c word as a autonomic term, including ‘queynte.’ The word did not become abusive until the late 1800s. There are also Germanic traces to the word being used as ‘vulva’ or ‘womb.’

The word then turned into an evil word to describe women because society declared it was a grotesque word to describe a grotesque thing. Most people use the word as a cruel synonym to vagina. Sure, dick is used as an insult too, but it holds nowhere near the same amount of weight as cunt. Cunt is a word used against women to make them feel ashamed and socially isolated. Years ago, Tina Fey recalled the insult being used against her on SNL, she said there was no word bad enough that she could call the man back that would compare to c*nt.

In the United States, the word is rarely said out loud, unless used as a derogatory insult. It is probable that you’ll see a gasp or wince at the sound of the c word. In the United Kingdom however, the word isn’t AS offensive, and may even be jokingly used in a conversation, similar to ‘wanker.’ Interestingly enough, in countries like Australia, New Zealand, and England, cunt means ‘a fool, a dolt, an unpleasant person – of either sex’ and it is more broadly used for both males and females.

To anyone reading this, embrace your cunt! The word could’ve been used as a way to describe something beautiful and powerful if it wasn’t left to the hands of misogyny. It’s time to reclaim the simple 4 letter monosyllabic word and use it as it properly should be used. We can’t control hateful rhetoric used against us as women, but we can reframe the meanings of the words.