When I was growing up, 'boobs' was the word my mom used for 'girl talk', and 'breast' was the word she used in serious conversations. She'd say, 'I have such bad PMS my boobs don't fit into my bra', or 'Now that you have boobs we'll have to buy your clothes in the teenage section'.

'Breast' was for things like, 'It's never OK for someone to touch your breasts without your permission, even a doctor or a nurse' or 'Grown women have to do breast self-examinations to look for lumps'.

To this day, I get a little tense when I hear the word 'breast', while 'boobs' gives me a safe, happy feeling. Because the main 'objectifying' term for mammaries I heard growing up was 'tits', that is my least favourite boob word. Although after reading the James Herriot books as a teenager, realising the farmers referred to teats as tits softened my response a little bit.

As for the men in my family, if they ever referred to any portion of the female anatomy it wasn't in front of me.

I looked for another thread on loaded words but all I found was Bitch, a thread from 2004 discussing the use of the term 'rich bitch', particularly in reference to Belinda Stronach.

Edited to add:

Actually I thought about what I posted above and I have to amend it. I think the main reason I don't like the word breasts is because of all the 'outsiders', school nurses, PE teachers, dressmakers etc who - when I was very young - referred to my breasts (usually addressing my mother as if I weren't there) with regret and dismay, as if they were charting the development of a tumour or other unwelcome growth.

When they were 'breasts', they were something to be feared and disapproved of; boobs on the other hand were *mine*, something I had control over, something to be proud of.

[ 10 June 2005: Message edited by: Anchoress ]

But on a purely aesthetic level, the word boob really grates on me. As does floozy, for the same sonority. Scoobidoobidoo!

[ 10 June 2005: Message edited by: brebis noire ]

And yes, "booby" is an old-fashioned English term for a fool. Would you believe that as late as 1975, in a roomful of graduate students discussing Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews, the names of two characters, Squire and Lady Booby, still felt loaded and sniggery in ways that Fielding had never imagined?

I think the only neutral term for breast I ever knew was "chest," actually.

In fact, I have often wondered, from my internalized perspective, whether the wide spread use of breast implants, and the success in pushing them upon womyn, has been acheived by objectifying boobs/chests as "breasts".

Though not arborwoman, there is only one context where I find the use of the words "tits" acceptable in reference to mine. And the use of "knockers" in reference to boobs is just plain sexist IMO.

Floozy's meaning for me, is like those who use today's word of "cougar".

The word bitch for me has no negative connotations. I see it as stenuously protecting what needs to be protected. And if someone uses it upon me, I feel that I have been adequately protecting what needed protecting.

i have heard women use "tits" in the same way "balls" are used: "she should grow some tits and get on with it"

i think "floozy" is another great word that can be taken back: "yea, i'm floozy (own your sexuallity?), what the fuck's it too you?" besides i love the way the word sounds.

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Originally posted by praenomen3:
I can see how the effects of vigourous upper-body exercise would give rise to the term ‘knockers’

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I like the old fashioned terms, bust and bosom. What I find funny though is when they're called 'bosoms'.

But in reference to women, I don't much like "tits" or even worse, "titties". I'd like to revive Nikita's word bosom as a polite reference, but it should be singular; "bosom" usually refers to the complete set of breasts.

Edit: yes, and bust is another good old-fashioned one. [also to fix silly spelling error.]

[ 10 June 2005: Message edited by: Contrarian ]

One word that's always puzzled me is the 'c' word: that's right, c---. It's quite powerful in Canada, for some reason - I can swear a blue streak with all other kinds of cuss words but the minute that particular one crops up, people get upset. (or maybe its just the shock of seeing a sweet 'ittle thing like me saying "c---") .

My Brit friends say it guilt-free all the time, as in, "Oh, that fellow, he's a right c---." But in North America it seems much more verboten.

Recently, while studying D.H. Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterly's Lover, in one of my English Lit. classes, no-one in the room could bring themselves to say it except the instructor and a student from Manchester. Adult people would blush and then politely cough in appropriate palces when asked to quote passages! Needless to say, in that atmosphere, I found it hard to say it out loud, too.

I guess with most words like "tits" or "floozy," it depends on who's saying it and what exactly they mean by it. I long ago decided to reclaim the word "slut" for myself, for example. (As well as "tart" and "shamelss hussy.") Funnily, though, I still don't like "Bimbo" or "loose." I wonder how many of those womynkind can reclaim? [evidently, not c---.]

(I suggest anyone that hasn't yet seen it, rent a copy of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues and reclaim the 'c' word for themselves.)

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Granola Girl ]

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Granola Girl ]

Ah well. The revolution must wait, yet another day...

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Granola Girl ]

But weirdly enough (maybe after a year of getting used to the word or maybe after years of British modern literary fiction) I find twat bothers me as much or more.

That reminds me that my least favourite insults are:

Stupid Bitch
Stupid Cunt
Stupid Twat

in addition to the obvious reasons, also because when a woman is called one of those names she is invariably NOT being or acting stupid.

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Anchoress ]

Psst... meet me at the Jade Gate at 08.00
Um... which one?

I like Tom Robbins' word for the vagina: "peachfish." Maybe its context-specific, but it seemed pretty sexy in Still Life with Woodpecker. Better than that old romance novel stand-by: "her velvet sheath" ! <*puke*>

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Originally posted by Anchoress:
I wonder if there is a correlation between the literal entrance to 'mother' China and the picturesque one?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Granola Girl:
Oh. Do you think I should remove it? I thought some people might be sensitve about it. Maybe I'll edit it. But it's not really in the spirit of "naughty" word reclamation, is it?

Ah well. The revolution must wait, yet another day...

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Granola Girl ]

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Not at all and I'm rather sorry you did. Reclamation of words is one of the most effective tools when it comes to changing culture.

About sixteen years ago, I was in Ireland on my first trip alone. I was staying with an old friend who I was becoming reaquainted with. She was a member of the Cork Queer Society.

When she explained why they were using the word Queer to describe them I understood what they were aiming for (in Ireland, queer is analgous to fag).

GG, please put it back. A little shock can do a lot of good.

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: HeywoodFloyd ]

quote:

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Originally posted by trevor j.:
It's possible, but the Yumenguan (Jade Gate Pass) was in the middle of nowhere even then (although close to Mongolia and its hordes, I suppose); you'd imagine that if the Han Chinese were going to make those sorts of associations, it would involve cities & places closer to the heartland of Chinese culture and activity.

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GG, please put it back. A little shock can do a lot of good.

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Thanks for the sentiment and the enlightening anecdote, Heywood, but I think I'll leave it as is, a perpetual testament to my willingness to cave under even the slightest anticipation of forthcoming social pressure. I think it kind of makes a double statement now. Besides, I think there are plenty of cunts left in the thread...

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Originally posted by kurichina:
The only word I really hate is "jugs".

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[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: Granola Girl ]

As regards 'tits,' it is not at all uncommon among the queer folks in my circle to refer to any fellow's outstanding pectoral muscles as 'man tits,' meaning the very opposite of disrespect.

That being said, it always amazes me that a word describing one of my favourite places in the world would be considered offensive.

Next we'll be calling people we don't like 'ice cream' or 'saskatoonberry pie', so that two more of my favourite manifestations of human joy become taboo in polite company. As in 'the boss is a real piece of saskatoonberry pie!..... a la mode!' followed by a bunch of gasps and awkward silences around the room.

[ 11 June 2005: Message edited by: arborman ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Melsky:
Bimbo was a male clown in the early Betty Boop cartoons.

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quote:

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Originally posted by arborman:
That being said, it always amazes me that a word describing one of my favourite places in the world would be considered offensive.

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Reading your post, immediately set my mind off on numerous tangents. Some a bit trivial, others a bit bawdy, but one residual thought was we need a Club Bed tourism campaign...

Does "bitch" bother anyone else? I don't know why it doesn't bother me, but it doesn't, and I find it useful. Sometimes some other women really annoy me, and I need ... something! There's something about the sound that seems so appropriate to certain kinds of sniffy, acidic persons.

The c-word is about the only one I don't use, but my 71 year-old mother uses it (usually when she's parodying some mouth-breathing asshole), so it's not like I get the vapours when I hear it.

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Originally posted by brebis noire:
Villa Vagina?

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No...more like relax in the sumptuous pleasures of dining...or your relaxtion getaway...fun in the sun, kinda thing.

My ex was Metis from Quebec, and he called my daughter's infant nipples her "teton" (is that the correct spelling?) And so that's what the rest of us picked up and used, it seemed somehow "nicer" than any of the other known choices.

My grand-daughters are Joan, 4 and Emily 3, and one of the fun things when they visit for sleepovers is that Grandma has foam-soap. I spray them a handful (it comes in gloriously dreadful colours, green, purple, red, almost neon shades and tones), then they dab it on nose, chin, "Boobies", bellybutton, in their "pits" and on their "oboes" (both have trouble with L and R sounds).

I have no problem with cunt, but dislike "snatch" and my BIG word hangup has to do with underarms. "Pits" for some bizarre reason has to sort of fight it's way up my throat. Which is amazing to me because swearing is such a part of my everyday vocabulary. Once I managed to say "fuck" and wasn't struck by lightning or turned into a leper, it was easy to go to Anglo-Saxonism.

I use "bullshit" a lot and "cow cack" but reserve, for the most outrageous idiocy the term "sheepshit". Try it. People's eyes often bug. I have no explanation. Why sheepshit (or sheepshite) should have such an impact puzzles me.

I don't use "vagina", we all use "bird" but really, I think we should use "clam", or some other shellfish. The similarities are incredible.

My youngest son wound up in jail for a few months and when he came out the one word he could not abide was "goof". I had always thought it innocuous and even used it as a mild endearment "oh, you loveable little goof". We don't use it much any more because Pepe still finds it an absolute insult.

But it's still a gorgeous drive, especially through Strathcona Park and then coming in from Gold River to Tahsis.

A few years ago, I sent my step-granddaughter "adoption" papers for a Vancouver Island marmot as a Christmas prezzie. (They have been endangered, as you probably know, and there is a campaign on and all.) We've kept that up as a tradition, and the s-gd (now six, living in Ottawa) has become seriously interested in going to visit her family one day.

I think it's because, to me, it typifies the societal tolerance we have for labelling women with pejorative terms based upon one negative attribute or mis-step.

I dislike the word not because I want people to think I'm nice, but because I think I deserve to be interacted with based upon specific actions and characteristics, not generalisations.

Call me nasty, mean-spirited, heartless, unforgiving, demanding, critical, hypocritical, selfish, scheming, deceptive, insincere, fickle, controlling, immature, or any other characteristic I've exhibited from time to time.

quote:

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Originally posted by lagatta:
The odd thing about bimbo is that it is actually a masculine noun.

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And the equivalent to Wonder Bread in Mexico. Which made me almost die laughing.

[ 15 June 2005: Message edited by: Doug ]

i commonly refer to my vagina as "gina" or "china", because they're names i used as a child when i couldn't yet pronounce the word vagina (speech problems...) so i think they're kind of cute.

As for "mid Island"...well, I personally think Nanaimo is SOUTH but who am I to argue with the MidIsland body shops, lubrication centres and crumpled fender repair people. For me it would be Courtenay-Comox was "mid", I mean there is a LOT of land north of there but the real estate contingent and the used car salesmen have sort of pee'd on all the posts down South and for those of us born here the changes are extreme. We mutter to each other and natter away about how all these Outsiders are coming in and just WRECKING everything...typical bitch session goes they come here on holiday, see the place, fall in love, go home, pack their shit,move here and immediately set about trying to turn it into what it was they had back wherever'n'hell it is they came from...

We had a tsunami warning last night. Earthquake in California set off some kind of automatic warning system...for a very brief period of time we were getting ready to swing into Emergency Preparedness gear but then...they cancelled the tsunami warning...no excitement here, after all.

So for any of you thinking of coming here...drive to Campbell River, and head West through Strathcona Park to Gold River, then take a right over a good gravel logging road and have your camera handy. You won't see marmots but you have a very good chance of seeing black bears, deer, and elk. I've been told some of the lakes here get stocked with trout every year but I don't know a soul who fresh water fishes any of the rivers, I'm told they run too fast for there to be any kind of food in them for trout. I don't know if that is true or not, I'm not in to freshwater fishing. Salt water fishing here is absolutely great! The other side of the Island is in real trouble, closed to groundfish and in some places closed to certain salmon species. Of course , Fisheries continues to allow the seiving out of hundreds of tons of krill, the basic food for the small fish which are in turn food for the larger ones. The krill are added to the pellets fed to the farm fish and all those "experts" don't seem to see that as krill is taken from the water the size and numbers of other species declines. Over here we still have fish, both in size and numbers, but you wonder how long that will be true when you see the big pickups hauling trailers on which sit expensive boats coming in over the logging road.

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Call me nasty, mean-spirited, heartless, unforgiving, demanding, critical, hypocritical, selfish, scheming, deceptive, insincere, fickle, controlling, immature

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Anchoress you are nasty, mean-spirited, heartless, unforgiving, demanding, critical, hypocritical, selfish, scheming, deceptive, insincere, fickle, controlling, immature but definitely NOT a bitch

I don't like the word "teton" at all. French isn't a good language for vulgarity.

[ 15 June 2005: Message edited by: Hinterland ]

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Originally posted by Hinterland:
[QB]French isn't a good language for vulgarity.

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quote:

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French isn't a good language for vulgarity.

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That didn't come out exactly right. In English, you can say things like "Jesus Christ, I'm fucking tired" in a completely benign way. In French, you can't do the same thing. Vulgarity in French is usually very mean and brutal.

[ 15 June 2005: Message edited by: Hinterland ]

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I looked absolutely blank. He shrugged. Seems it isn't quite as big an insult to people from Quebec, either...but in Alsace-Lorraine it practically brings traffic to a halt.

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Swearing is very culturally-loaded. I find metropolitan French swearing to be kind of dirty but otherwise ineffectual.

Lake, Palmer Emerson
to
Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Edited to add: after skimming the list, I think I like 'Garbos' best.

[ 15 June 2005: Message edited by: Anchoress ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Hinterland:
I really like that phrase from Dolores Claiborne: "Sometimes being a bitch, is all a woman has to hang to."

I don't like the word "teton" at all. French isn't a good language for vulgarity.

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Originally posted by RP.:
If "boobs" is inappropriate, what is an appropriate term for "man boobs"?

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quote:

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Originally posted by anne cameron:

As for "mid Island"...well, I personally think Nanaimo is SOUTH but who am I to argue with the MidIsland body shops, lubrication centres and crumpled fender repair people. For me it would be Courtenay-Comox was "mid", I mean there is a LOT of land north of there but the real estate contingent and the used car salesmen have sort of pee'd on all the posts down South and for those of us born here the changes are extreme. We mutter to each other and natter away about how all these Outsiders are coming in and just WRECKING everything...typical bitch session goes they come here on holiday, see the place, fall in love, go home, pack their shit,move here and immediately set about trying to turn it into what it was they had back wherever'n'hell it is they came from...

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Your talk about Tahsis reminds me of a few days I spent stormed in there on a fish boat around Thanksgiving about 10 years ago. I went to the pool, hiked on a few trails, and bought lottery tickets. It seemed a sweet place to be, though it was clear at the time that it was in the midst of an economic dislocation. I sure was glad to be there, compared to what we'd been in on the outside.

Three days after we went back out to resume fishing, the weather got really sour, really fast. One boat went down and one that was close to us blew out the windows in their wheelhouse. We had turkey and spent another 2 weeks out there. /thread drift

[ 03 July 2005: Message edited by: arborman ]

Having seen, and been in, seemingly endless 50 foot waves, I couldn't agree with you more./further drift