Shit, piss, fuck, motherfucker, tits, cocksucker, cunt. For those unaware, these are comedian George Carlin's famous seven "forbidden" words which — three decades ago — could not be said over the airwaves by FCC and Supreme Court decree. Since then, however, "piss" has pretty much been absolved — with "pissed off" now being regularly heard on network TV. "Fuck" and "fucking" are heard so often on the big screen and on "premium" cable TV that they hardly get passing notice. "Tits" has been emancipated on network TV by being euphemized to "my boobs," and "my nipples." "Cocksucker" is used mostly by men, as an expletive. And, as we all know, "shit" is now in common parlance — except over the airwaves. So, Carlin's original seven words have been reduced to four that remain mostly taboo in conversation.
This leaves "cunt" as unarguably the most forbidden word in English. By contrast, its male analog, "prick," gets a pass. Viagra has pretty much emancipated "penis" (in more ways than one). And anyone can nowadays get by with "ass hole" (which ought to be the dirtiest word).
But amazingly, cunt's more medically acceptable partner, "vagina," remains surprisingly out of bounds in conversation. When discussing an infant delivery problem with her peers, a woman is most apt to refer to her own vagina as "the birth canal" — rather, even, than "my birth canal." Her act of de-personalizing her genitals makes the associated word(s) more palatable to say. It pretends to remove the notion of vaginal ownership, and stems from a centuries-old, subconscious denial — culturally imparted — of a female's possessing one of those mysterious, secretive, "dirty things."
Finally, the word "vulva" — the part of a woman's genitals you can see (if, of course, you're permitted) — remains nearly as taboo as cunt.
All of which bears on both the value and attraction of Eve Ensler's off-Broadway smash hit, The Vagina Monologues, currently in an extremely successful run at the Phoenix Theatre, and making the rounds in most major American cities. It's been so popular here that the 16 original performances have "exploded" to 49 — all now sold out! I saw it when Lisa Koch (of Dos Fallopia fame) was the only scheduled performer (she's since been replaced by a triumvirate, consisting of Diane Kondrat, Rhoda Ludy and Kelli Walker). To say the least, I was not only edified, but transformed. After hearing vagina uttered surely well over a hundred times during the 17 monologues, the audience's (and my) embarrassed tittering slowly evolved into relaxed laughter.
Though Ensler uses vagina in practically every other sentence, vulva (not to be confused with "uvula") go mostly unmentioned. Ensler does not distinguish a woman's inner and outer labia, her hood-enshrouded clitoris (please stress the first syllable), her urethral opening and her vaginal introitus from her vagina itself. The latter, though simply a passageway, is the only bilateral (receiving and delivering) one in existence whose importance has been absolute for the continuance of human life. Allowing that cunt remains the more inclusive term, The Cunt Monologues would clearly have never made it outside the Village.
Yet, to demonstrate how sensitive the latter word remains, Ensler herself never once employs cunt outside of Monologue No. 14 — "Reclaiming Cunt" — despite listing, and using, a plethora of its nicknames (many first taught to me by my omniscient teen-aged male peers) throughout most of the other monologues. It should be realized that cunt derives its power solely from its perception as the ultimate obscenity — the nastiest four-letter word. (Radio's Bob and Tom love to see how close they can come to using it, with wordplay they didn't invent, such as "Mike Hunt" sounding close to "my cunt.")
It proved fascinating enough (the word, that is) to motivate a full dissertation on its etymology, now published on a Web site — "Cunt: Taboo, Patriarchy and Liberation" (http://members.tripod.co.uk/mathunt/dissertation.html) — by Matthew Hunt (a Briton, not related to Mike). Hunt employs countless references, dates and ibids, displaying a work of serious scholarship. Cunt, he says, has a Latin origin, and its use in English — as well as its taboo perception — dates back to before Chaucer. Hunt says: "'Cunt' signifies sex … [and] because the signified is the source of the taboo, censorship of the signifier represents an attempt to repress what it signifies. Thus the marginalisation of 'cunt' acts as a social pacifier, channelling and controlling the parameters of acceptable thought, action and discourse." Discourse, yes — but thought and action?
We've come a long way from the 1950s when, as a teen, I saw one of the countless re-releases of Gone With the Wind on the big screen, and heard the audience collectively shudder when Rhett said to Scarlet: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." There are many who would say those days were better, that as a society we've become more coarsened and that our freer use of "rough" language is one indicator. Well, abuse of women has gone on far longer than historians can document; evidently, the more recent social nicety of not "talking the talk" has not prevented "walking the walk." Ensler was trying, in part, to show that a woman's denial of her cunt/vagina and the social stigma against using those words have never prevented the ugliest forms of female abuse: rape and genital mutilation.
Though the latter is what Ensler specified as associated with African cultural practices, she has since received many letters pointing out that it also happens in the U.S. — to baby girls born with an oversized clitoris. They say that the physician will often convince her parents to consent to having the organ trimmed back for her "cosmetic well-being" without really knowing what loss in future sexual pleasure she will experience. Clearly, the social stigma of not talking about it more openly hasn't been all that helpful. This, in contrast to the current, openly discussed issue regarding male circumcision.
Yet things are perhaps changing in a positive way. A newly reported societal practice is vaginal cosmetic surgery. Though plastic surgery for medical reasons has been performed on women's vaginal areas for decades, only recently are females having their vulvae "rearranged" solely for cosmetic reasons — most likely for "him" or, alternatively, for "her." They desire a normally proportional, symmetrical appearance — one most aesthetically pleasing — though it may result in either a loss or gain of sensation, depending on circumstance and surgeon.
Still, where a woman's genitalia are concerned, the "walk" appears to be encompassing more positive actions. So, is it any easier to read cunt now than when you started this piece?
taldridge@nuvo.net
Tom Aldridge covers classical music for NUVO.
email this story to a