The Independent Online has an article about an upcoming BBC show on attitudes towards the word cunt. I'm not familiar with the state of TV in the UK, but in reading through the article, I get the imnpression that attitudes towards taboo words are much more lax there than in the US.
Ms Greer will next week present a film for the BBC2 language series Balderdash & Piffle devoted to the c-word, examining its origins and uses. It may be too much for some to stomach.It doesn't sound like the situtation here in the US at all. I can't imagine a show even discussing cunt, let alone using it.
The BBC show will be preceded by a warning about the strength of the language - after all, recent experience shows it still has the power to shock.
Still, it's interesting that most Brits find the word extremely offensive.
When John Lydon uttered it during a live segment of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! in 2004, viewers complained in their scores and ITV issued an apology. Two years earlier Caprice let fly with the expletive during an edition of ITV1's This Morning as she talked about her role in the stage show The Vagina Monologues. Barely discernible because of her Californian accent, the reference was enough to spark complaints and ITV was censured by the TV regulator. And its liberal use in the transmission of Jerry Springer: The Opera brought a blizzard of indignant headlines.
Definitely read the full article it's got a brief run-down on the history of the word and some discussion of language attitudes in general.
1 comment:
In the US, it's a conversation stopper. In the UK, it's about like, I guess, "fuck." You can call someone (male, female, or neuter) a stupid cunt and the room doesn't go silent.
Oddly, "fanny" is a fairly shocking word over there [probably on a level with "fuck".] Makes more sense when you consider that it's a synonym for "cunt", I guess.
-Sandy
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