This is a guest post by Anna Fleur.

I’m a militant feminist. I believe that women should come together to destroy patriarchy and create a society were our gender shouldn’t determine our safety – perceived or actual. I’m also a feminist who uses the word ‘cunt’. A lot.

This is partly because it’s a satisfying word to use, partly because it was a word I heard alot when I was growing up – mostly in the school yard by young people who didn’t have a clue what it meant. I don’t think it’s gendered because some women don’t have cunts and some men do. But mainly, I use it because I’m too busy thinking about all the other, more important feminist issues to give a damn about my language.

Honestly, I’m sure if women who are beaten on a regular basis but have no access to help, women who are having their cunts surgically mutilated in the name of culture, women who are fighting tooth and nail to be allowed to have an abortion after being raped knew how much of our time was devoted to debating about a word and whether or not it is sexist, they’d want to call us cunts. That’s understandable really, isn’t it?

The fact that one of Western feminism’s most hotly debated subject is a word is disgusting. It just shows our privilege, that few issues are more important to us and impact our daily lives. The fact that good feminists spend so much time telling other women that they’re bad feminists for using that word suggests that there’s something very wrong with our priorities.

In my eyes, cunt is a non-gendered term that can be used to describe men, women and objects and makes no judgement about their genitalia. However, some people may choose not to use it, for fear of insulting someone or being labelled a bad feminist. I don’t judge people who just don’t want to use it, but can we keep that decision personal? Instead of stressing about how we throw around a centuries-old word can we get back to devoting time to fighting against the cuts to rape and violence protection services for women, stopping Dorries, 40 days of life and their American equivilants’ attempts to dismantle our reproductive health services and find new ways to support women worldwide who are facing great oppression on a daily basis?

This is a short post, sort of because I have revision, but mainly because I don’t have a great deal to say about the matter. Cunt is a word, and that’s all there is to it.

READ MORE!
Zoe, an amazing woman/feminist/friend, gives her view on the word ‘cunt’.

Originally posted on Anna’s blog, which is excellent and we recommend you all read.