Down There

Cunt. 

Yeah, I said it.

C  U  N  T.

Those four tiny letters. What visceral response does that word bring up within you? Four letters arranged in a specific order. What about “TUNC”? Do you have the same emotional reaction to those letters arranged in a different order? I doubt it.

So what or who gives that word “CUNT” so much power?

We do, that’s who. You and I and each individual.

When I was a girl growing into womanhood, we called it “down there”. It was the unspeakable. Un-nameable. Today I call it whatever the fuck I want to.

My body. My choice. Your body. Your choice.

Each individual woman has the power to call her vagina whatever she wants to call it and to express her feminine sensuality and sexuality however she chooses. *That’s* where the power comes from, not the sequence of letters. Some women like the word “pussy”, others “sacred yoni”, still others “vagina” or “hoo-hoo”, or yes even “cunt”. 

If I as a woman say to other women, “Vagina is the only proper term to use” or “Yoni is the only proper term to use” or “the word CUNT is an affront to all women”, essentially I am saying, “you are not interacting with your vagina the proper way.” 

In doing so, I am perpetuating the same suppressive bullshit that the patriarchal culture puts on women. In my opinion it is even more heinous because it is a woman suppressing other women. The message is “You’re not interacting with your femininity in a way that makes me comfortable.” That’s what the patriarchy says, and it’s exactly the fight that feminism is fighting against every day.

Women are taught from the time we are girls to change who we are and how we are so that others can feel more comfortable. We are taught to take care of other people’s feelings. “Nice Girls” and “Good Girls” don’t offend, don’t rock the boat, don’t upset the apple cart, don’t get angry, don’t hurt other people’s feelings. In fact, they take responsibility for how others feel. News Flash: I am not a girl. I am a grown-ass WOMAN. 

TRUTH: How you feel is not my responsibility.

It’s *your* responsibility. That is unless you want to live from a Victim place, as many people in our world are prone to do.

TRUTH: There is power in naming. There is power in choice. We each get to choose what we call our vagina, pussy, yoni, hoo-hoo, cunt. There is even more power in supporting and respecting each woman’s right to choose the word that feels *right* for her and to express who she is as a woman in the way that feels true to her own soul.

(Mic drop.)