Great. Thanks!

Kate-chan: 'sokay; i feel like i do the same thing a lot of the time. i think i'm making sense but then i start to think i'm really not. XD
and actually, Fiona also brought up something i meant to as well... BTW, i just remembered awhile ago when you mentioned something about "miso gymnasts." :)

Fiona: YES. that's also something i do a lot. people who i'm friends with look at me funny sometimes as far as that goes---if it's the first time they've heard me do it. but they get used to it quickly. again, the whole change-of-context things. also with "girls" and "boys." i call EVERYONE "girls" and "boys," regardless of age. and i agree completely about being an equal-opportunity hatah! XD and you said what i meant to in a much clearer way than i had; i was completely thinking of the way "nigger" and "queer" and "fag" and so on had been coopted by the people those terms were originally meant to hurt and turned around to be empowering and/or endearing---and at any rate, brought round to meaning something other than what they originally had. as with anything, it's also context. change the context and you've effectively changed the word.

(which reminds me that a boy i use to be friends with [who was fully Chinese] used to talk about opening a restaurant and calling it "Chinkies!" [much like Velma's "Jinkies!", but quite different really], but that's beside the point. although i was highly entertained. XD)

you got your point across just fine =) i have trouble expressing what it is exactly that i want to say. i'm like a japanese movie.. i often have no point. ^_^

deragatory, damnit.

hmmm, i tend to use loaded words like this and deliberately use them out of their gendered context. i'm quite happy to call men bitches, hos, and cunts, just as i'm equally happy to call women the same things. (that's because i'm an equal opportunity hatah!) in a lot of ways i feel like a woman saying "cunt" is one of the more transgressive uses of the word precisely because it's sooooo loaded.

if you look at the way the words "nigger" and "queer" have been co-opted by those for whom it was originally a deragory term, i think there is a lot of precedent for people using loaded words and changing the meanings by deliberately using them.

and i don't know about fuck being necessarily a gender neutral word. if a woman says "i want to fuck", it's seen as a positive expression of her sexuality, while a man saying the same thing would have entirely different connotations. although that is more of a contextual thing, methinks.

interesting convo.

Paul: exactly. XD

Kate-chan: yes, but either i failed utterly to express my point as clearly as i'd have liked in my last couple of comments, or else you missed it. my point is that language, over the course of time, changes. and to my mind, the only way to make it change is to force it to ourselves. this is also partially why i brought up the subject of the Cunt book in the first place. seriously, take a look---you might find it interesting. while i know a few people have questioned the veracity of what sources Muscio used to come up with that meaning---why CAN'T we turn the meaning into something positive, something good? words mean what we make them mean. i completely detest the idea that we should be afraid of using them.

Isn't a Bunny just a long eared , hopping type cat? Should I go do my research better?

the difference between "twat"/"cunt" and "dick" is that "dick" does the fucking and "twat"/"cunt" is what gets fucked.

it's a loaded word thing, and fuck is rather loaded.. but it's also gender neutral. (hence, no problem with fuck XD)

and, jannyanchan, you're not misogynistic? really? XD

oh, and two more things. one, i think i have at least some idea of when you're attacking and when you're not. :)

two, i very much care what i say. as i said before, i usually take a lot of care in what i write. as a result (and probably because of that slight delay between thinking something and getting it down through my fingers and through the keyboard), my writing tends to be a lot more well-thought-out and coherent than my speaking. i try hard not to toss of much in the way of writing without thinking. i won't say it doesn't happen ever, but generally it doesn't. :)

kate-chan: in the classic case of words (slang especially) that have more than one commonly-derived meaning, "twat" is one. it can also mean "idiot," or possibly "dipshit," or "fuckwit," or whatever other derogatory synonym you'd like to apply. although it doesn't have as many usages as "fuck," "fuck" is also a good example of this in that while obviously there are sexual connotations (as also with "twat"), if something is "fucked up," generally the sexual connotation is not what is implied. yet this is perfectly acceptable, in the grand pantheon of swearing. same with saying someone's dicked you over. why not twat? words are powerful, but they should not be feared. perhaps because "fuck" is so much more popular, it's lost some of its power to offend. perhaps if "twat" were more popular, it would cease to be such an offensive term as well.

i'd also hope you know me well enough by now to know that i'm very much not misogynistic, and take what i've written in the manner in which it was intended.

additionally, there's also issues of reclamations of formerly derogatory words (which i wasn't doing here, as i did in fact mean it in a derogatory manner---just a slightly different one), but i think that's a very interesting topic to take up as well. take something negative and degrading and demeaning and turn it into a phrase of empowerment. (c.f. Inga Muscio's Cunt: a Declaration of Independence)

as for neutrality, i actually rather like loaded words. i like playing with them. i like exploring why they're forbidden, the etymologies, the possible multiple meanings, etc., etc. i like words in general, and i do try to use them carefully. and i generally don't tend to use them without knowing what they mean first---i did do that when i was probably in my early teens, but learned rather quickly that that's one of the fastest ways to look like an idiot. :)

i agree with your opinions totally.

small comment: instead of saying "twat" for something like "asshole," say something more neutral. we're learning in Women's Studies how words like sissy and cunt and pussy are all female-diminuative.. i don't know. i sound stupid writing this, and it's not an attack, it's just... um.. i hope when i write things that could be construed to be anti-female or that are female-degrading someone points them out to me so that i don't use it again. you probably don't care and i should leave you alone. X_X;;; (don't be offended, i love you jannyanchan!!!)