11 Jun What’s In A (“Bad”) Name?
There's no way I could or would avoid addressing last week's flap over Samantha Bee’s use of "the C word" about Ivanka Trump. My favorite responses to the outrage over the comedian’s use of the word were both by actors, and both showed wit. Minnie Driver tweeted, "That was the wrong word for Samantha Bee to have used. But mostly because Ivanka has neither the warmth nor the depth." And my friend Sally Field tweeted, "I like Samantha Bee a lot, but she is flat wrong to call Ivanka a cunt. A cunt is powerful, beautiful, nurturing, and honest." Etymologically speaking, Sally is close to the mark. The word currently spelled in English c-u-n-t is actually one of the oldest words in the English language. Linguistic scholars believe it to be derived from Indo-European names for the Great Goddess, variously known as Cunti or Kunda, the Yoni (Door) to the Universe—the...