Comment by twixfel
3 days ago
I am British and we don’t call each other cunt that much. Among friends with a smile on your face, ok, but otherwise it’s still probably the worst thing you can say to someone short of throwing something racist in as well. And calling a woman a cunt is sexist.
We don't call each other cunt that much, but of course we do it now and again with a smile on our face. Right.
My point was simply that the word is much more common in places like the UK and Australia, to the point where being called that once ever is very far away from my experience, enough to be quite noteworthy. A point which your comment literally confirms.
And, as everyone is rushing to point out, yes, it can be used offensively, if used a certain way. What is this apparent difficulty accepting that words have multiple uses, even sometimes the opposite thing. English is a very contextual language, tone and intonation and familiarity and etc matter hugely.
For example, your last point - calling a woman a cunt can of course be sexist, but what if you and the woman for whatever reason both decide that you like calling each other a cunt? If you think that doesn't happen in the world, in respectful and mutually caring relationships and friendships, you are mistaken. Some people simply enjoy breaking taboos, it can be healthy and playful.
If he’s posting about it on hacker news about how he was called a cunt by him then me thinks they weren’t, and never were, friends.
Point is even with context you’re still wrong.
I didn't comment on OP's story of being called a cunt, nor claim that they were friends, nor make any guesses about how the word in the original story was employed. From the other comments in the thread, it seems it very well could have been meant offensively in this case - but I wasn't commenting about that.
But anyway, that hardly matters - yes, I am indeed dead wrong in the made up argument you're having about the thing no-one said.
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