Kate Lister - A Curious History of Sex

‘Th’art good cunt, though, aren’t ter? Best bit o’ cunt left on earth. When ter likes! When tha’rt willin’!’

‘What is cunt?’ she said.

‘An’ doesn’t ter know? Cunt! It’s thee down theer; an’ what I get when I’m i’side thee, and what tha gets when I’m i’side thee; it’s a’ as it is, all on’t.’

‘All on’t,’ she teased. ‘Cunt! It’s like fuck then.’

‘Nay nay! Fuck’s only what you do. Animals fuck. But cunt’s a lot more than that. It’s thee, dost see: an’ tha’rt a lot besides an animal, aren’t ter? – even ter fuck? Cunt! Eh, that’s the beauty o’ thee, lass!’ {40} 40 D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover , ed. by David Ellis (Ware: Wordsworth, 2007), p. 156.

Cunt: ‘that’s the beauty of thee, lass’ – I don’t think I have heard a more marvellous definition of cunt. Sadly, despite Lawrence’s best efforts and a jury that agreed a work stuffed with cunts does have artistic merit, cunt has yet to be welcomed back to polite society. James Joyce uses one cunt in Ulysses (1922) and calls the Holy Land ‘the grey sunken cunt of the world’. {41} 41 James Joyce, Ulysses (Ware: Wordsworth, 2010), p. 54. (Though he freely uses cunt in his private erotic letters to his wife, Nora, whom he delightfully calls ‘fuck bird’.) The American Beat poets like the shock of the cunt. In ‘Howl’ (1956) Ginsberg writes about a ‘vision of the ultimate cunt’. {42} 42 Allen Ginsberg, ‘Howl’, Poetry Foundation , 2018 < https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/how > [Accessed 7 September 2018]. But cunt is there to shock. Cunt didn’t make it into mainstream cinema until 1971, in Carnal Knowledge , starring Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret. Jonathan Fuerst, Nicholson’s character, screams at Bobbie (Ann-Margret): ‘Is this an ultimatum? Answer me, you ball-busting, castrating, son of a cunt bitch!’ {43} 43 Mike Nichols, Carnal Knowledge (Los Angeles: AVCO Embassy Pictures, 1971). The Exorcist (1973) uses ‘cunting’ as an adjective twice (i.e. ‘cunting daughter’). There is a third cunt that was cut from the final edit where the troubled Regan tells her doctor he must keep his fingers away from her cunt. {44} 44 William Friedkin, The Exorcist: Extended Director’s Cut (Warner Brothers, 2010). Notice that the only cunt that was cut was the one that actually means vulva? This has been true of most cinematic uses of cunt – it is far more often used as an insult than it is to mean the genitals.

As the twentieth century wore on, cunt settled into its role as a powerful insult. The Oxford English Dictionary did not admit cunt until the seventies. But in 2014 the OED added ‘cunty, cuntish, cunted, and cunting’ to the entry under cunt; ‘cunty’ is defined as ‘highly objectionable or unpleasant’; ‘cuntish’ means an ‘objectionable person or behaviour’; ‘cunted’ means to be drunk and ‘cunting’ is an intensifier that means ‘very much’. {45} 45 ‘Oxford English Dictionary’, Oed.Com , 2018 < http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/45874?redirectedFrom=cunt#eid > [Accessed 7 September 2018]. There is no doubt that cunt is a very versatile word (noun, adjective, verb), but it still shocks. In 2016, Ofcom (the regulator for UK communications) ranked swear words in order of offensiveness, and cunt came out on top. {46} 46 ‘Ofcom Explores Latest Attitudes to Offensive Language’, Ofcom , 2016 < https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2016/attitudes-to-offensive-language > [Accessed 7 September 2018]. The British Board of Film Classification’s guidelines state that the word cunt can only be used frequently in films that are rated 18+.

Cunt maintains an uneasy relationship with feminists, who are undecided if the word is empowering or demeaning. Various feminist movements have tried to reclaim cunt. Judy Chicago led the ‘Cunt art’ movement of the 1970s and created works of art that aggressively used ‘cunt’ to cut through prudish attitudes around female sexuality. Inga Muscio’s 1998 Cunt: A Declaration of Independence inspired a movement called ‘Cuntfest’ – ‘a celebration of women’. In 1996, Eva Ensler premiered a new play called The Vagina Monologues at the HERE Arts Centre. The play features different characters talking about their sense of self, their sexuality and how they feel about their vaginas. One monologue is entitled ‘Reclaiming Cunt’ and is a tour de force of cunt:

The audience are encouraged to shout CUNT in unison and to feel the explosive power of the word as one. The Vagina Monologues was a landmark production in feminist theatre. But although I am very much in agreement with Ensler and also consider shouting cunt at Ryanair baggage reclaim services to be highly therapeutic, Ensler’s work hasn’t forced the mass renegotiation with cunt we may have hoped for. Perhaps cunt is beyond reclaiming now. But it remains a deeply powerful and special word.

Words for women’s genitals tend to be clinical (vagina, vulva, pudendum, etc.), childlike (tuppence, foof, fairy, minky, Mary, twinkle, etc.), detached (down there, bits, special area, etc.), highly sexual (pussy, fuck hole, etc.), violent (axe wound, penis flytrap, gash, growler, etc.), or refer to unpleasant smells, tastes and appearance (fish taco, bacon sandwich, badly stuffed kebab, bearded clam). Cunt doesn’t convey any of these. Cunt is cunt. Words for the vulva seem to be in a constant state of trying to deny the very thing being described – your genitals aren’t a ‘twinkle’ or ‘fur pie’. Sadly, just as cunt the word has been censored, cunts themselves have been culturally censored to the point where the only cunts that we feel are acceptable are plucked, waxed, surgically trimmed, buffed, douched with perfumed cleaning products and served up covered in glitter. The vaginaplasty business is booming and you can now have your labia cut off, your hymen rebuilt and a car air freshener installed (I joke). Is it any wonder we can’t cope with the directness of cunt and resort to ‘down there’? Cunt may never be allowed off the naughty step, but it is surely far less offensive than many synonyms on offer. And while people insist on calling cunt a vagina or a vulva so as not to cause offence, it’s worth remembering that we are actually calling cunt a scabbard – a cock holder, a sausage pocket.

Cunt may be classed as an offensive word, but it’s an ancient and honest one. It’s also the original word; everything else came after.

Welcome to #TeamCunt.

Unless you’re a late social bloomer who still believes women are domesticated wombs with tits, who should restrict their activities to baking cakes and darning socks, I think we can all agree that feminism has done some pretty marvellous things. Women can now vote, open bank accounts and make cheese from our own breastmilk without being molested by the patriarchal dairy overlords. There’s no doubt, women have come a long way. But there’s still one area that feminism is failing in. One area where the almighty penis continues to reign over the vulva unchallenged – and that area is sexual slang. However many slang words you can think of for the clitoris, there will be a thousand more for the penis, testes or semen. Of course, there are many colloquialisms for the vulva, but they rarely delineate the various important pleasure points contained within that glorious goodie bag: the clitoris, the cervix, or the much mythologised Gräfenberg spot, for example. It’s just ‘gash’, ‘pussy’, ‘clunge’, etc. And I’m not even sure if there are any slang words for the womb or the ovaries (would ‘baby-cave’ or ‘lady baubles’ work?). The whole ‘locker-room banter’ register of bawdy sexual slang celebrates the vulva for the pleasure it brings to the mighty ‘rod’ (1591). The omission of the clit – whose only function is to pleasure its owner – is telling. In Western culture, the clitoris has been overlooked because female sexual pleasure has historically played second fiddle to male pleasure. Literally and metaphorically, the clitoris has never received enough attention.