CUNT: A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
(EXPANDED AND UPDATED SECOND EDITION)
by Inga Muscio
Seal Books: 2002
I love my cunt: source of so much intense, noisy pleasure in my life (just ask the neighbors), and the place in which my two daughters came to be before being pushed out into this world.
Sigh.
This world, which at times, feels like a universe of fear and loathing directed at cunts. All cunts. At a time in my life, I hated the word “cunt.” It felt so ugly, so degrading. It was a word that, hurled at me, could wound me more than being called a bitch ever could. To call me a cunt was to try to transform the soft, wet, orgasmic, reproductive wonder of nature that I carry between my legs, and turn it into a weapon of self-hatred.
I can’t tell you how I got over that. Maybe it was learning Latin and realizing that the “proper” term, “vagina,” means sheath, a place you stick your sword into. It was given its name by men to denote its function for them.
Well, Inga Muscio is having none of that.
In 360-odd pages, she offers a memoir, a manifesta, a literary monument to the word, the anatomical structure, and the source of power that is “cunt.” Which is not to say that she doesn’t encounter resistance along the way. She writes:
While one word maketh not a woman-centered language, “cunt” is certainly a mighty potent and versatile contribution. Not to mention how deliciously satisfying it is to totally snag a reviled word and elevate it to a status which all women should rightfully experience in this society.
When viewed as a positive force in the language of women—as well as a reference to the power of the anatomical jewel that unites us all—the negative power of “cunt” falls in upon itself, and we are suddenly equipped with a word that describes all women, regardless of race, age, class, religion or the degree of lesbianism we enjoy.
And while cunts may, in Muscio’s capable hands, become “jewels” and sources of power and things to be celebrated, she also acknowledges that they can be a pain in the … well, you know.
In three parts, Muscio examines the word, the anatomical jewel, and reconciliation. As she argues, if you’ve been alienated from a word that by rights belongs to you, when you take it back, reconciliation is called for.
Near the beginning of the book, Muscio writes the following. I don’t have better words than this to close the review, so I’ll simply defer to the cuntlovin’ non-violent warrior.
If it were my job to mathematically figure out which women despise more: being called a cunt or having one, I’d be hating life.
I’m glad that is not my job.
Instead, my job at present is to discuss some of the different ways ’n means women learn to hate our cunts, which still isn’t the most savory task on earth, but it is attainable.
Women comprise over 50 percent of this country. Women comprise just over 50 percent of this planet. There’s plenty of power in numbers. If we don’t have power, it can’t have anything to do with mass.
I conclude it must have to do with some stuff inside ourselves.
To know oneself truly is to love oneself. Whereas women do not learn the veritable nature of ourselves in this culture, the likelihood that we love ourselves and/or one another is highly suspect.
All cunts belong to all women.
The responsibility sits between our legs.
Lorraine says:
Cunt me into the revolution.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
emma peel 2
Donald Manns
The Flylooper
Vivian Henoch
Lydieth A
Sean Murphy
Salon.com
Comments
(rated)
If the word prick can be used, or cock, or dick, why not cunt? I never could figure out why one word could be so offensive, but I will say I never use it. I don't like getting punched. :-D
Nice job.
rated.
I firmly believe that women will be the saving of the world.
Why cunt is particularly "bad" - I've a couple of theories. First, it's pretty much hidden. A woman could go thru her whole life and never see her own (and before the invention of mirrors, did) and, unless she were a midwife, maybe not anybody else's either. Whereas a man's genitals are Out There. What is hidden always garners suspicion. And because men suffer from cunt-need, if I may put it that way, that engenders resentment, even hatred in some cases. Plus, women's social position for most of our species' existence means that everything about them got held in contempt.
Things are improving...
Anyway, on a lighter note - it's been pointed out that, before the largest audience any human being has ever had, Our Lady of the Hat sang "My cunt.....tree tis of thee".
And there's the wonderful line in The Sound of Music, where the sweet nun says solicitously to Maria, "What is it, you cunt-face?"
I like this post but felt disappointed when I got to this.
It seems to undercut the piece. Solidarity, sure, relating re: society's pigeonholes, yeah. But the ramifications of that statement are just weird.
And forgive the guy-ness of this, but I find the cunt + fingerlakes wanderer juxtapose to be weirdly beautiful.
But, like most women I know, I have no trouble using any term for penis, in any way.
But, first is it obvious when I'm quoting her and when I'm writing myself? I was told that it's not obvious. Her quotations in italics.
Greg, out of curiosity, what is it that you don't like about the term you cite?
And for everyone on this thread. It may seem silly to write about this one word, but we still have these words that seem to have more power than they should. I'm glad to see people offering some really thoughtful replies, for which I'm going to think on myself.
It's hard to embrace a term that has been used to degrade women for so long. If you've ever attended THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, you know there's an entire monologue devoted to the word.
The difference, I think, between being called a "prick" and being called a "cunt" is that gender difference in this country is still a measure of power. A lot of times, when we call a man a "prick," it's almost like saying, "arrogant, thinks he knows it all, treats others like they're less than him." "Cunt" it seems to me is often sexual in nature. It's meant to reduce women down to her vagina, and it's often accompanied by adjectives that further degrade. I realize I'm digging myself into a hole here (and I haven't taught theory in a decade) but if men are already powerful, calling a man a prick seems to weirdly reinforce that power. Calling a woman a cunt makes her less powerful, even less human.
I think that's what I'm trying to get at here. For me, the word "cunt" is the word that seems most appropriate for that part of my body. It seems more visceral, sounds more squishy (oh boy, now I'm really in trouble) when the word vagina just sounds like a sword to me. The entrance to my body that can be stabbed.
And this is another discussion, but I've always hated the word twat. Still do. So sue me.
I think, to answer the question about why write a book about this, is reflected even on this thread. The word still makes a lot of women uncomfortable because for so long it was a weapon. I think though, that using the word allows women to take it back as ours. And I think it really might take 360 pages of history, etymology, literature, etc, to get at that.
Did any of that make any sense? I'm getting a cold and I think I'm not getting oxygen to parts of my brain. :)
I recently posted my first novel online and most of my Mormon family refused to read it because they couldn't get past the "garbage" language. And I don't think I said "cunt" once!
I've always marveled at how we choose some words to be offensive and obscene. We are the only animals that have the luxury of debating such silliness.
Now that said... "cunt" is such an ugly word.
I am sorry, but it is a gutteral bark that I simply can't apply to something so beautiful and cherished. Even if I can become fingerlakes-enlightened, and drop the negative conotations, I would feel compelled to find something more... intimate. The word "cunt" is not an intimate word.
Similarly, "vagina" is far too clinical and medical-sounding. In fact it comes closer to sounding like part of a disease ... and it is impossible to apply during a passionate sexual encounter.
I have been able to refer to a warm "pussy" when feeling playful and touchy-feely.
I have happily stolen "punani" from the Poets of HBO fame in a sensual dilerium of scents and textures and flavors. Yum. Very often this has been my default.
Otherwise, we make a game of naming the most communal of body parts such that it becomes quite specific to us as a couple. (i.e. Jenny and Joe; Hyde and Sieque; and Baby Boo and the Boomer) Childlike perhaps but I found that i never argued the point at the time.
Creative options abound... but never "cunt."
PLEASE forgive and understand the way I am about to phrase this. I am as likely to post a line that is shorthand, compromised, glib hooey as as anyone.
The phrase seems facile and only meaningful in a post-modern, theory sense, which is to say it has no real meaning. I am sometimes surprised by potency in such Theory but rarely, and ultimately most of it fades quickly.
My take: while not as a good a sound bite (er, tapping keys sound phrase? hmm), the point I THINK you were reaching for was this: there is a universal ownership issue that is unique to women, or at least different than it is for men, whereby Cunt and Twat et al isolate and diminish us (women). But Prick and Dick et al bring a sardonic or even roosterish pride, a solidarity, to us (men).
Inherently unfair.
I would buy that. And it is consistent with the rest of the piece.
And I could be full of it, too. What temerity, re-writing your work. Typical guy shit.
I hear what both of you are saying. To PH, I would say that there would be other words that I could post here that would be hurtful just the history behind them. We are creatures with language. This is just part of that territory.
Yes, Harp I hear you. Each woman is free to choose whatever word she's most comfortable with. I happen to like the word "cunt." I know it's got the two harsh letters at each end, but it's what's you have to do with your mouth to make the middle letters that makes it a lovely word for me.
Thank you for the input. I just want to say that "all cunts belong to all women" is not my phrase, although I chose to quote it.
And I'm not jumping on anybody for saying things I disagree with. As I tell my students when we're discussing race or class or sexuality, "this is tender territory, and I expect us all to treat each other with respect and dignity. Which doesn't mean we can't disagree."
I do see your points. I want to take them under consideration and get back to you.
http://www.amazon.com/Cunt-Declaration-Independence-Expanded-Updated/dp/1580050751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233162880&sr=1-1
For example, I know a lot of people who will, in a self-deprecating way, joke about their own weight. "God, I'm so fat!" etc. But no one else has permission to agree or make the same observation, even in jest. In the same way, somewhere along the line, I believe that "cunt" was chosen as "that word" which cannot be uttered. Not by "someone else," anyway.
Similarly, Chris Rock discusses the word "nigger" in his recent stand-up act, and makes the point that it's basically a word that white people can't use without being offensive, and humorously gives a few very narrow contextual instances in which it's "okay" for whites to use the word. But the overall message is, "To be safe, don't use it if you're white. Ever!"
Years ago, I learned this same lesson with "cunt." It was SO offensive to SO MANY women that I basically struck it from my vocabulary altogether. In my household, there are a few narrow contextual instances in which it's "okay" to use the word. Like if my wife has commonly referred to someone else she doesn't like--say Ann Coulter, for example--then I can use it in that context. But any reference to the female organ is strictly verboten 24-7-365. "The Puss" is okay. But "cunt" is forbidden. Don't ask me why, but thems is the rules and I live by them. Or else!
ps--My favorite curse word is "jesusfuckingchrist!" and I actually know people who are proudly agnostic who find it highly offensive and will scold me when they hear me use it. I find that really bizarre!
I only saw eve ensler's vagina monologues a couple of years ago. The cunt monologue was unexpected, and perhaps harsh sounding, to the midwest women in the room. I would say that the whole video, monologue included, along with my own experiences, have contributed to my understanding of feminism in this moment.
From my perspective, women posess magic men to this point cannot harness: we bring forth life. Through our cunts. So of course men have actively belittled and pushed aside women and the life-bringers of the race, because for so long it was not understood. We were made to be witches, after all.
Whatever name it is given, it will be belittled. Because woman is belittled. I can embrace the word cunt now more than ever. It sounds powerful. So what if this is old work. It is good work. Way to go, cunt!
I think the big issue is, are we talking about a person or a part? If you call a person a cunt or a pussy, it's an insult. (And interestingly, those are both used against men. "Cunt" in particular is used in British slang mostly towards boys/men) But to call a body part by that term in a playful or loving way is entirely different.
IOW, I'm not a cunt but I have one. There's a difference in reducing someone to a body part or function and acknowledging what their anatomy is.
Rated!
(rated)
For a detailed and accurate historical account of American "cunt" refer to the legendary HBO series "Deadwood." You can even look up cunt ancestry and find out which cunt character you relate to, even literally.
Thank you very much for clear for me/us.
Loved it!
cyclopic
January 28, 2009 02:24 PM
To Cyclopic: As a medical profession I did some time working in gynecology. That said, in your worse nightmare you could not imagine the horrors I've seen. Without TMI let me just say many women take better care of their teeth than they do their lady parts.
I had a friend who would always ask: "Why is it an insult to call a guy a "dick? I would think that was a *good* thing." I always felt she had a point.
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=94568
Amen
your story is sage advice buddy, at least in my experience.
Anyhoos, I just got brave enough to say “pussy” . . .so I have a way to go. LOL
Rated
Are you kidding me ?!?!?!?
Remember Lenny Bruce railing on in front of a crowd and saying a particularly offensive word over and over and....trying to make that crowd understand that the overuse of that word could deflate its power?
It didn't work. These days the illuminated are saying of course that the particular word in question then shouldn't be used at all. Some step up and say it's o.k. if you are one.
Is that what just happened?
I'm more tolerant now of sexist language from clueless men and women, but still intolerant of someone calling me a bitch. luckily, it doesn't happen very often. But it's not a word I can reclaim. (So fucking bitch, stupid bitch etc. are still in my "you chose the wrong cunt to fuck with" area of argument.)
Definitely an attention getter, though, no matter what you call it.
My thoughts on this - I have never liked to use "cunt" "prick" "dick" or similar words when they are being used to describe people in a negative way, mainly because all the "cunts" I ever visited with my "dick" left me with such fond memories (ok, most). Didnt want to think of these things in the negative, and never understood why they could be used that way. Did someone not enjoy these things? Is that why they became "bad" words?
Forget "vagina." Sounds too damn clinical.
Good job FLW. Rated.
So I didn't.
I'll confess that I find this sort of discussion refreshing, and in a way, encouraging. It seems terribly sad to me that *love* (in whatever form you wish to express it) has been turned into a vehicle for shame or (worse?) violence or repression. Words ARE important, the way we respond to, and expect others to respond, to the sound of the words we say. The lifetime of memories, desires, and fears each one conjours within us.
It's never easy breaking free. Sometimes you end up with shattered glass, or broken bones. Hurt feelings on the part of people watching you should be the least of anyone's worries.
Bless you, best wishes. And good luck.
I'm just mad at this thread right now - George Carlin and Robin Williams - sheesh.
I think people *choose* to be offended by certain words... it's a power thing. An attempt to assert some measure of control on the world around them by trying to dictate what others can or cannot say.
Anyway, blah blah. This was an interesting post.
Cool. It's the revel in revolution.
Why is it that the word "stupid" can be bandied about but the word "cunt" is considered hateful and disgusting. I detest the word "stupid" and will only use it for the most deliberately stupid people. But cunt....? Most women love their cunts and most straight men would love to have cunt more often. Yet that's the bad word but I can here parents calling their kids "stupid" in public and nothing is done. Perhaps I'm just odd in this...
Much like homosexuals refer to themselves as queers, or people of african descent calling themselves nigger.
The unfortunate thing is, use them as self-referentially and proudly as you like but, being a straight caucasian male, regardless of intent, I wouldn't be able to share in your conversation.
Maybe that's because, in America (as many of you have mentioned Carlin) we get more hung up on the words than the intent of the person using them. In Britain, they don't share our aversion to cunt. You'll often hear, "you fat cunt" (to a man) or "it's all cunted up," all with no sharp intake of breath through a hand-covered mouth. Why? Because we're pretty sure they're not (at that moment) trying to emotionally wound a woman.
Well... C U Next Tuesday!
I am so appreciative of the folks who stopped by and wrestled with these questions with me. Yeah. It's just a word. But there are other words in our culture that also carry with them the threat of violence or dehumanization. I am not my cunt. I want to make that clear. But I claim the word "cunt" to describe my genitals because I don't want it to only belong to those who hurl it at women as a weapon. Words matter. I don't think you can be a writer and not see that words matter. The question is, how can we resurrect certain words, take them back? Or do we instead just need to start over? Create a new word?
If anyone is interesting, there's a fascinating discussion of the etymology of the word: cunt.
Thanks to everyone who jumped into the fray here.
:)