Cunt...

...may be my favorite word in the English language. I save it for really, really special occasions, like fine heirloom silver. There are so few words that carry such succinct emotional impact. But there are two others that I keep in that extra special drawer:

Faggot.

Nigger.

There are other epithets, but they've really become archaic. No one says 'spick' anymore. I'm not even sure I know what that word was intended to mean. 'Kyke?' Why would anyone use that word? Those are hateful, but lack the emotional impact that others do.

'Faggot,' 'nigger,' and 'cunt' really embody the venom that are intended by their use. Do I use these words often? Hell no. Even at my most riled, I'm very, very rarely that angry. Maybe once every decade someone will anger me to the point that I need to use a word that can hold all of my venom. That's when I trot out one of these little gems. They are rhetorical nuclear weapons that trump all arguments.

Am I proud of my use of these words? Absolutely not. But not because I'm concerned about the injuries they may or may not inflict. When I use them, I direct them at individuals I want to hurt, and hurt badly. I'm embarrassed about using these words because I think they are markers for the limits of my education. The use of these words, and the need to use these words, illustrate to me that I am not as evolved, not as civilized, and not as loving as I'd like to think that I usually think I am.

I need these words. I think we all need these words. There are so few things in our society today are universally off limits. 'Nigger' is marginally acceptable from certain segments of the African American community. It crops up enough to be startling, but there are contexts in which it is almost a term of endearment. The same is true for 'faggot.' There are some gay men who have embraced 'faggot' and thread it throughout their daily discourse. I'm not one of them. It's a grotesque word. The only one that lacks an acceptable context is 'cunt,' and now Eve Ensler is trying to reclaim 'cunt' in her Vagina Monologues. I am against such reclamation.

We've lost 'fuck.' When I was a kid, that was the ultimate curse word, the one certain to send the speaker straigh to H-E-DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS. Now its a word that litters daily conversation to the point that adults feel quite comfortable using it in front of their children. It is almost the universal noun, verb, adjective and adverb. In a business meeting, I counted its use twelve times by three different speakers. No one noticed. I'm proud to say that I controlled the impulse to say 'cunt' just to see the effect.

But just barely.

So, Eve Ensler: I want my 'cunt!' I need my 'cunt!' Don't touch my 'cunt!'