Pornosophy: Let’s Discuss the C Word

Gustave Courbet’s “The Origin of the World” (1866)

C--- or the C word as it’s called is increasingly described as one of the worst things that can be said, something rivaling the racist N word. But C represents a part of the body and N is a derogatory expression for a whole race of people. Plainly it’s a no brainer. N has C beat, when it comes to defamatory expression. Using the N word is a statement of the fact that you believe a person is not equal to you. It’s a personal attack,  though it's frequently used by rappers to describe their cohorts, as in the case of Bobby Shmurda’s hit song “Hot N*gga.” But why is the C word so frowned upon when you don’t need to abbreviate when you want to call someone a prick in or out of print? After all the C word is the best description of the subject matter for Courbet’s masterpiece, “The Origin of the World." In a way this favoring the P word over the C word is a form of discrimination since it’s saying that the female gonad which the C word references is more damning as an expletive than the corresponding male appendage. Which brings up another question. Would women take offense if people started referring to those they wanted to malign as vulvas, breasts or vaginas in the same way that a person of dubious character is called an asshole. We already know that pussy produces an almost equally negative response as the C word, though pussy is not as easy to challenge since it shares linguistic territory with baby cats—whose deletion from English would offend animal rights advocates. As for the poor asshole it has no one to defend its honor since being unisex, it’s neither fish nor fowl. Those who feel that the C word is being unfairly discriminated against for no real purpose should organize mass demonstrations in front of The White House to rescind a First Amendment free speech encroachment and also in front of the U.N. and embassies and consulates around the word to protest a growing threat to language rights and fair use.