The worst word in the english language?
The recent prolific use of the word Faggot has got me interested.
Why is this word so damn offensive?
At a festival earlier this month, Crazy James and I debated this topic at length. We even asked a cross section of other random punters what they thought was the worst word in the english language.
For me, personally, I think the F word is far worse then the C word. When i find myself in need of verbalising extreme dissatisfaction with someone/thing I automatically spew forth the “other” F word. It is usually accompanied by the more common garden variety of F word. The double F word combo packs a lot of punch. I think they call it alliteration. For me, the big bad F word does not refer to a persons sexuality at all, but rather their total ineptness or sheer stupidity. The C word, in my vocab, gets used to describe the someone/thing which has intentionally pissed me off or made life difficult eg “that job was a C to get finished”, “She was being a C to me”, “I hope that C reads this” and so on…
Most of the other women in our study group were of a similar opinion.
On the other hand, some gents we questioned were adamant that the C word is held in higher regard as hard core insult. Others agreed that the F word was probably worse.
I plan to explore the topic further and post findings here. I warmly welcome any theories to this effect.