It was only a matter of time before Cronos ate his young. Last week, the regurgitated demon spawn known as Tucker Carlson was unceremoniously ousted from Fox News in an exodus worthy of any Greek tragedy.
Naturally, his termination raised questions. Why was such a popular host fired?
So many reasons…Take your cause célèbre pick.
Some speculated his demise was due to his January 6th conspiracy theories and election misinformation, leading to a costly lawsuit. Or perhaps it was the constant barrage of antisemitism and racism that drove away advertisers. And, of course, let's not forget the blatant misogyny and harassment of female coworkers.
But insiders have also speculated that Carlson's overenthusiasm for the sticky C-word may have been the cherry on this shit sundae. And no, that word was not caramel.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Carlson referred to Sidney Powell and several female employees as a "cunt." And many Fox employees complained that the word was used so frequently among his staff that the office began to resemble a locker room of sophomoric wankers. The workplace eventually got so hostile that a gender discrimination lawsuit was filed by Carlson's former producer, Abby Grossberg.
But while the C-word will undoubtedly make any woman spit flames today, such was not always the case throughout history.
The etymology of cunt is hotly debated. First off, cunt predates "vagina" and "vulva." The word "vagina" is Latin for "sword sheath," but vagina was not used to describe a woman's genitals until the seventeenth century.
In the late fourteenth century, the Latin word "vulva" described a woman's womb. Vulva was often interchanged with cunnus, but etymologists still debate if cunnus is related to cunt. Other C-sounding contenders include the French con, the Spanish coño, the Portuguese cona, and the Persian kun.
The oh-so cunning orator and lawyer Cicero was not a fan of the ole' cunnus. In 45 BC, he wrote a letter to his friends and family listing Latin obscenities that should be avoided. Included on that list were cūlus ("arsehole"), mentula ("penis"), and of course, cunnus ("cunt”).
However, Cicero's opinion was not embraced by everyone. In the Middle Ages, the sex manual of its day — the Catalan KamaSutra — references "cony" (Catalan for "cunt”), but it was not an insult. Cunt also appeared in several medical texts, referring to a woman's genitals. In most incidents, the word described where a penis went during intercourse.
In fact, throughout most of the medieval period, a woman's genitals were kind of badass. For example, the flytrap vagina known as the Sheela Na Gig adorns many twelfth-century castles. Most scholars believe her gaping vagina was a fertility symbol or possibly a talisman against evil. And let's face it. Nothing sends the devil packing faster than a toothy growler of a vagina. (Not a personal reference…yet.)
According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the first salacious reference to cunt is an odd one. In thirteenth-century medieval England, street names often alluded to what could be found on that street. For example, if you wanted a petticoat, you went to Petticoat Lane. Church Lane had some snazzy churches. And Gropcunt Lane… well, you get the picture. That's where prostitutes peddled their wares.
Chaucer played with cunt, but not in an overtly sexual way. Several sources claim he used the C-word in The Canterbury Tales (1390), but Chaucer wielded his "sword sheath" more subtly. The word he most often used was "queynte" or "Queint," — meaning "a clever or curious device or ornament." In other words, "queint" is a euphemism for a woman's equally clever genitals.
Shakespeare skirted the censorship police with his usual winky-face puns. The bard wordsmithed "cunt” or "cunny" when he referred to "country, cut, or constable." For example, in Act Three Scene Two of Hamlet, he wrote, "Do you think I mean country matters?" And then later teases Ophelia that "country" is also "a fair thought to lie between a maid's legs." Apparently, that's the late sixteenth-century version of a dirty joke.
But Chaucer and Shakespeare were just having some cuntish fun. The 2nd Earl of Rochester and renowned seventeenth-century f*ckboy John Wilmot wrote a far naughtier poem titled "Advice to a Cunt Monger." Wilmot muses, 'Have a care of Cunts that Clapp yee.' ("Clapp" is slang for venereal disease, most often gonorrhea.) In Sodom, he boldly declares that 'she that hath a cunt will be a whore’.
Well, now we are getting into the slut-shaming portion of this history lesson. Andrew Tate fans take note.
By the eighteenth century, cunt became a derogatory term for women. In his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), Francis Grose described a cunt as "a nasty name for a nasty thing.' The word cunt is definitely harsh sounding, but so is "prick," and no one called it nasty.
Despite their prudish reputation, Victorian erotica peppered in plenty of C-bombs. These bawdy books could be found hidden away in most bookseller corners. (You just had to ask for them discreetly.)
But the book that caused the most titters was D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1929). Lawrence was determined to rescue cunt from the frat boys with some titillating descriptions of (gasp)…female pleasure. Sadly, his cunty efforts only got him slammed with an obscenity trial and a book ban. So much for reclaiming the uncensored beauty of a woman's sword holder.
Of course, this is the danger of any taboo word. Over time, the abstraction replaces the person. When we call someone a "dick" or a "cunt," we essentially are saying they are not worthy of being viewed as more than their parts.
Still, language is fluid, and meanings change. In the 1990s, feminists tried to rebrand cunt with the critically acclaimed The Vagina Monologues. During one monologue titled "Reclaiming Cunt” actresses shouted, "Say it, tell me, cunt, cunt!" And then, they asked the audience to join the campfire hi-jinx by chanting cunt.
Let's try it together, Grim History lovers. "Cunt, cunt, CUNT!!!!"
Feel better? Yeah, me neither. (And now I have to worry about Google indexing my name with cunt. You’re welcome.)
Unfortunately, while shouting cunt is good old-fashioned fun for the whole family, doing so might not be well-received at your next office meeting.
Context matters — a lesson some of us apparently need to learn the hard way.