Rachel Maddow Trumps TV Nemesis Her show permits liberals to enjoy themselves during what may be the most unenjoyable time of their political lives. Search or upload videos. Popular on YouTube Music, Sports, Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, News, Spotlight. Browse Channels. The Hollywood Reporter is your source for breaking news about Hollywood and entertainment, including movies, TV, reviews and industry blogs. Cunt matthewhunt. The c word, cunt, is perhaps the most offensive word in the English language, and consequently it has never been researched in depth. Hugh Rawsons Dictionary Of Invective contains the most detailed study of what he calls The most heavily tabooed of all English words 1. Cunt A Cultural History Of The C Word is therefore intended as the first comprehensive analysis of this ancient and powerful word. Cunt has been succinctly defined as the bottom half of a woman or a very despicable person Pentti Olli, 1. Torrent Subliminal Studio' title='Torrent Subliminal Studio' />According to Francis Groses scurrilous definition, it is a nasty name for a nasty thing 1. Cunt is a synonym for vagina, though this is only its most familiar meaning. As a noun, cunt has numerous other senses a woman viewed as a sexual object, sexual intercourse, a foolish person, an infuriating device, an ironically affectionate term of address, the mouth as a sexual organ, the anus as a sexual organ, the buttocks, prostitution, a vein used for drug injection, a synonym for damn, an attractive woman, an object or place, the essence of someone, and a difficult task. It can also be used as an adjective to describe a foolish person, a verb meaning both to physically abuse someone and to call a woman a cunt, and an exclamation to signify frustration. Torrent Subliminal Studio' title='Torrent Subliminal Studio' />The cword, cunt, is perhaps the most offensive word in the English language, and consequently it has never been researched in depth. Hugh Rawsons Dictionary Of. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Torrent Subliminal Studio' title='Torrent Subliminal Studio' />Despite its semantic flexibility, however, cunt remains our highest linguistic taboo It has yet, if ever, to return to grace Jonathon Green, 2. Cunt is a short, monosyllabic word, though its brevity is deceptive. The words etymology is surprisingly complex and contentious. Like many swear words, it has been incorrectly dismissed as merely Anglo Saxon slang friend, heed this warning, beware the affront. Of aping a Saxon dont call it a cunt. In fact, the origins of cunt can be traced back to the Proto Indo European cu, one of the oldest word sounds in recorded language. Torrent Subliminal Studio' title='Torrent Subliminal Studio' />Cu is an expression quintessentially associated with femininity, and forms the basis of cow, queen, and cunt. The c words second most significant influence is the Latin term cuneus, meaning wedge. The Old Dutch kunte provides the plosive final consonant. The Oxford English Dictionary clarifies the words commonest contexts as the two fold female external genital organs and term of vulgar abuse RW Burchfield, 1. At the heart of this incongruity is our cultures negative attitude towards femininity. Cunt is a primary example of the multitude of tabooed words and phrases relating to female sexuality, and of the misogyny inherent in sexual discourse. Visual Basic 2010 Express Offline Dictionary. Kate Millett sums up the words uniquely despised status Somehow every indignity the female suffers ultimately comes to be symbolized in a sexuality that is held to be her responsibility, her shame. It can be summarized in one four letter word. And the word is not fuck, its cunt. Our self contempt originates in this in knowing we are cunt 1. When used in a reductive, abusive context, female genital terms such as cunt are notably more offensive than male equivalents such as dick. This linguistic inequality is mirrored by a cultural imbalance that sees images of the vagina obliterated from contemporary visual culture The vagina, according to many feminist writers, is so taboo as to be virtually invisible in Western culture Lynn Holden, 2. Censorship of both the word cunt and the organ to which it refers is symptomatic of a general fear of and disgust for the vagina itself. The most literal manifestation of this fear is the myth of the vagina dentata, symbolising the male fear that the vagina is a tool of castration the femme castratrice, a more specific manifestation of the Film Noir femme fatale. There have been attempts, however, to reappropriate cunt, investing it with a positive meaning and removing it from the lexicon of offence, similar in effect to the transvaluation of bad, sick, and wicked, whose colloquial meanings have also been changed from negative to positive what Jonathon Green calls the bad equals good model of oppositional slang Jennifer Higgie, 1. The same process took place in Mexico when the offensive term gueybuey was co opted by the cool, young set as a term of endearment Marc Lacey, 2. The Cunt Art movement used traditional feminine arenas such as sewing and cheerleading as artistic contexts in which to relocate the word. A parallel cunt power ideology, seeking to reclaim the word more forcefully, was instigated by Germaine Greer and later revived by Zoe Williams, who encouraged Cunt Warriors to reclaim the word 2. Jacqueline Z Wilson, 2. What cunt has in common with most other contemporary swear words is its connection to bodily functions. Genital, scatological, and sexual terms such as, respectively, cunt, shit, and fuck are our most powerful taboos, though this was not always the case. Social taboos originally related to religion and ritual, and Philip Thody contrasts our contemporary bodily taboos with the ritual taboos of tribal cultures In our society, that of the industrialised West, the word taboo has lost almost all its magical and religious associations 1. In Totem Und Tabu, Sigmund Freuds classic two fold definition of taboo encompasses both the sacred and the profane, both religion and defilement The meaning of taboo, as we see it, diverges in two contrary directions. To us it means, on the one hand, sacred, consecrated, and on the other uncanny, dangerous, forbidden, unclean 1. Taboos relating to language are most readily associated with the transgressive lexicon of swearing. William Shakespeare, writing at the cusp of the Reformation, demonstrated the reduced potency of blasphemy and, with his thinly veiled cunt puns, slyly circumvented the newfound intolerance towards sexual language. Later, John Wilmot would remove the veil altogether, writing some of the filthiest verses composed in English David Ward, 2. Puritanism. Establishment prudery. Peter Fryer 1. Victorian period, when sexually explicit language was prosecuted as obscene. It was not until the latter half of the 2. Lady Chatterleys Lover, that the tide finally turned, and sexual taboos including that of cunt were challenged by the permissive society. During the Lady Chatterley obscenity trial, the word cunt became part of the national news agenda, and indeed the eventual publication of Lady Chatterley can be seen as something of a watershed for the word, marking the first widespread cultural dissemination of arguably the most emotionally laden taboo term Ruth Wajnryb, 2. The word has since become increasingly prolific in the media, and its appearances can broadly be divided into two types euphemism and repetition. Humorous, euphemistic references to cunt, punning on the word without actually using it in full, represent an attempt to undermine our taboo against it by laughing at our inability to utter the word, we recognise the arcane nature of the taboo and begin to challenge it. By contrast, the parallel trend towards repetitive usage of cunt seeks to undermine the taboo through desensitisation. If cunt is repeated ad infinitum, our sense of shock at initially encountering the word is rapidly dispelled. How Doctors Think NPRINTRODUCTIONAnne Dodge had lost count of all the doctors she had seen over the past fifteen years. She guessed it was close to thirty. Now, two days after Christmas 2. Boston to see yet another physician. Her primary care doctor had opposed the trip, arguing that Annes problems were so long standing and so well defined that this consultation would be useless. But her boyfriend had stubbornly insisted. Anne told herself the visit would mollify her boyfriend and she would be back home by midday. Anne is in her thirties, with sandy brown hair and soft blue eyes. She grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, one of four sisters. No one had had an illness like hers. Around age twenty, she found that food did not agree with her. After a meal, she would feel as if a hand were gripping her stomach and twisting it. The nausea and pain were so intense that occasionally she vomited. Her family doctor examined her and found nothing wrong. He gave her antacids. But the symptoms continued. Anne lost her appetite and had to force herself to eat then shed feel sick and quietly retreat to the bathroom to regurgitate. Her general practitioner suspected what was wrong, but to be sure he referred her to a psychiatrist, and the diagnosis was made anorexia nervosa with bulimia, a disorder marked by vomiting and an aversion to food. If the condition was not corrected, she could starve to death. Over the years, Anne had seen many internists for her primary care before settling on her current one, a woman whose practice was devoted to patients with eating disorders. Anne was also evaluated by numerous specialists endocrinologists, orthopedists, hematologists, infectious disease doctors, and, of course, psychologists and psychiatrists. She had been treated with four different antidepressants and had undergone weekly talk therapy. Nutritionists closely monitored her daily caloric intake. But Annes health continued to deteriorate, and the past twelve months had been the most miserable of her life. Her red blood cell count and platelets had dropped to perilous levels. A bone marrow biopsy showed very few developing cells. The two hematologists Anne had consulted attributed the low blood counts to her nutritional deficiency. Anne also had severe osteoporosis. One endocrinologist said her bones were like those of a woman in her eighties, from a lack of vitamin D and calcium. An orthopedist diagnosed a hairline fracture of the metatarsal bone of her foot. There were also signs that her immune system was failing she suffered a series of infections, including meningitis. She was hospitalized four times in 2. To restore her system, her internist had told Anne to consume three thousand calories a day, mostly in easily digested carbohydrates like cereals and pasta. But the more Anne ate, the worse she felt. Not only was she seized by intense nausea and the urge to vomit, but recently she had severe intestinal cramps and diarrhea. Her doctor said she had developed irritable bowel syndrome, a disorder associated with psychological stress. By December, Annes weight dropped to eighty two pounds. Although she said she was forcing down close to three thousand calories, her internist and her psychiatrist took the steady loss of weight as a sure sign that Anne was not telling the truth. That day Anne was seeing Dr. Myron Falchuk, a gastroenterologist. Falchuk had already gotten her medical records, and her internist had told him that Annes irritable bowel syndrome was yet another manifestation of her deteriorating mental health. Falchuk heard in the doctors recitation of the case the implicit message that his role was to examine Annes abdomen, which had been poked and prodded many times by many physicians, and to reassure her that irritable bowel syndrome, while uncomfortable and annoying, should be treated as the internist had recommended, with an appropriate diet and tranquilizers. But that is exactly what Falchuk did not do. Instead, he began to question, and listen, and observe, and then to think differently about Annes case. And by doing so, he saved her life, because for fifteen years a key aspect of her illness had been missed. This book is about what goes on in a doctors mind as he or she treats a patient. The idea for it came to me unexpectedly, on a September morning three years ago while I was on rounds with a group of interns, residents, and medical students. I was the attending physician on general medicine, meaning that it was my responsibility to guide this team of trainees in its care of patients with a wide variety of clinical problems, not just those in my own specialties of blood diseases, cancer, and AIDS. There were patients on our ward with pneumonia, diabetes, and other common ailments, but there were also some with symptoms that did not readily suggest a diagnosis, or with maladies for which there was a range of possible treatments, where no one therapy was clearly superior to the others. I like to conduct rounds in a traditional way. One member of the team first presents the salient aspects of the case and then we move as a group to the bedside, where we talk to the patient and examine him. The team then returns to the conference room to discuss the problem. I follow a Socratic method in the discussion, encouraging the students and residents to challenge each other, and challenge me, with their ideas. But at the end of rounds on that September morning I found myself feeling disturbed. I was concerned about the lack of give and take among the trainees, but even more I was disappointed with myself as their teacher. I concluded that these very bright and very affable medical students, interns, and residents all too often failed to question cogently or listen carefully or observe keenly. They were not thinking deeply about their patients problems. Something was profoundly wrong with the way they were learning to solve clinical puzzles and care for people. You hear this kind of criticism that each new generation of young doctors is not as insightful or competent as its forebears regularly among older physicians, often couched like this When I was in training thirty years ago, there was real rigor and we had to know our stuff. Nowadays, well. These wistful, aging doctors speak as if some magic that had transformed them into consummate clinicians has disappeared. I suspect each older generation carries with it the notion that its time and place, seen through the distorting lens of nostalgia, were superior to those of today. Until recently, I confess, I shared that nostalgic sensibility. But on reflection I saw that there also were major flaws in my own medical training. What distinguished my learning from the learning of my young trainees was the nature of the deficiency, the type of flaw. My generation was never explicitly taught how to think as clinicians. We learned medicine catch as catch can. Trainees observed senior physicians the way apprentices observed master craftsmen in a medieval guild, and somehow the novices were supposed to assimilate their elders approach to diagnosis and treatment. Rarely did an attending physician actually explain the mental steps that led him to his decisions. Over the past few years, there has been a sharp reaction against this catch as catch can approach. To establish a more organized structure, medical students and residents are being taught to follow preset algorithms and practice guidelines in the form of decision trees.