Amazon Defends ‘C*nt’ Product As ‘Light-Hearted’

[Purveyor]

By Mark Sweney, The Guardian
Thursday, March 28, 2013 11:43 EDT

Amazon has sparked outrage by defending the use of the word “cunt” in a product image used by a retailer on its website, arguing that it was featured in a “light-hearted” way that was not likely to offend any particular group, such as women.

The Advertising Standards Authority banned an internet ad which appeared on Amazon.co.uk for a Christmas card which featured the text: “You’re a cunt. Sorry, I meant to say ‘Merry Christmas’.”

In its ruling the ASA said it was banning the ad under harm and offence rules in the advertising code, on the grounds that it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

In a submission to the ASA Amazon said that it should not have been banned because “the card was not offensive, aggressive or lewd in its message. It was meant as a bit of light-hearted, irreverent fun”.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/28/amazon-defends-cnt-product-as-light-hearted/

[Lil Missy]

1. Good gawd. I'm speechless.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

2. As a male I'm offended

By the product "Fresh Balls" as well.

[RKP5637]

4. And, they also have "Anti Monkey Butt Powder 6 oz!"

"Fresh Balls" ... I had no idea that was a product.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

6. It's very real

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=fresh+balls&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=6691920207&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2029544349992918277&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_1u2ve6le0w_e

[RKP5637]

8. Yep, to me, it's kinda gross. The butt power is real too ...

http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Monkey-Butt-Powder-Calamine/dp/B0018GBJKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364492791&sr=8-1&keywords=butt+powder

[thelordofhell]

16. Monkey Butt is what happens when you ride a motorcycle for looooong periods of time

It's basically saddle rash...........

[RKP5637]

17. Thanks! It must work well too! Has great ratings on Amazon! n/t

[LittleBlue]

23. Try "Black People Toothpaste" from China

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/11/30/china-s-controversial-toothpaste.html

[RKP5637]

33. Unbelievable. n/t

[HappyMe]

3. "Cunt" doesn't mean the same thing in the UK

than it does here.

[sufrommich]

5. Its slang for vagina,here and there.nt

[ChoppinBroccoli]

11. Actually, They Use It More Like We Use The Word "Asshole"

I'm pretty sure that when I hear Ricky Gervais call some douchebag, "a dopey cunt," he doesn't mean the person is a vagina. Just like when you call someone an asshole, you're not saying that that the person is actually a human orifice.

[dipsydoodle]

14. That's correct

That or stupid. There were others too :

[Sissyk]

30. You're correct!

However, you know us Americans. Since its use bothers the majority here, it must bother the majority there! lol

I really don't like that word though.

[HappyMe]

32. I have to say, it is the one word I don't use.

Too nasty. Across the pond, not so much.

The ads for those cards only appeared in UK, so there isn't much need for an uproar here.

[sharp_stick]

7. That word is used much

more lightheartedly throughout the UK than here. When I was in Manchester last year I was astounded how often I heard it just in casual conversation.

Men, women, teenagers just chucking it out as part of speech. It's interesting to notice what is considered really bad cursing in different parts of the world.



Note: reposted from my reply in the locked Lounge thread.

[MADem]

26. I remember (back in the dark ages) when the term "bloody" was an absolute NO NO back in the UK...

...and Brits would come over here and gleefully use the term on American TV, because it just didn't have the same impact as it did in the home country. They'd get a charge out of "getting away with it" -- I remember watching a guy on Ed Sullivan using the word and almost falling over himself at not being pilloried for it.

So too, with the "C" word--it's a NO NO over here, it's "meh" over there (I'll acknowledge I was shocked the first hundred or so times I heard it used over there, before I finally figured out it has a different vibe, rather like the "d" word over here). But be careful about pointing this out, because you'll be accused of "endorsing" the word simply for edifying others on how it is used in other parts of the world.

[LanternWaste]

34. The Three Stooges once toured Ireland and were forced to change Stooge to something else

The Three Stooges once toured Ireland and were forced to change the shows billboards at the last minutes from Three Stooge to Three Something Else (idiot? nincompoop?) as 'stooge' was slang for 'screw'.

Another Thursday Useless Fun Fact.

[MADem]

41. Proof that words do change their meaning over time!

I guess either the word is now much less offensive or it doesn't have that meaning anymore, because the "new" movie about the trio released in Eire without a name change!

That is an hilarious fun fact, though -- I was always amused by the Stooges--they translated well, no matter what the country!

[dipsydoodle]

45. Did that work in reverse for Fairytale of New York

which used the Irish slang for a lazy person ?

You´re a bum you´re a punk
You´re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag you maggot
You cheap lousy ******

[cthulu2016]

9. Amazon has always sold the "Cunt Coloring Book"

(A famous 1973 feminist book that is exactly what it sounds like)

http://www.amazon.com/Cunt-Coloring-Book-Tee-Corinne/dp/0867193719

I don't like the C word myself, but I don't know that Amazon should have any word bans.

[dsc]

10. lets be blunt

replace the c word with the n word and Amazon wouldn't be defending the card as lighthearted fun.

[cthulu2016]

12. Yup. That's why they have never sold Dick Gregory's autobiography

[Chan790]

18. Actually they do.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dick+gregory

It's the first item listed if you do an author search.

[Rex]

19. Exactly!

The fact that they defend it at all is in really poor taste.

[CBGLuthier]

22. I found the two Richard Pryor albums I could think of with that word on amazon

Words have power but some times they are truly neutral. Like in dictionaries and product listings.

[NYC_SKP]

24. "Frequently Bought Together":

[TM99]

13. Amazon sells products to us all.

We may not like a book or a product but do we really want all words that offend that are in titles stricken from the free availability of purchase?

http://www.amazon.com/Nigger-Strange-Career-Troublesome-Word/dp/0375713719/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364493351&sr=8-2&keywords=nigger

[Prism]

15. In England, that is light-hearted

And note the ad in question was only on the British site.

Don't see why Amazon should be raked over the coals for being culturally appropriate in the country in question.

Unless we're now exporting our language sensibilities to the rest of the world.

[Victor_c3]

20. I worked there and I remember seeing the "cunt coloring book"

check it out. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be a feminist thing to use to teach girls/women to not be ashamed of their "bits and pieces" and their sexuality or if it is meant to be a gag. I could see it being either.

[LittleBlue]

21. C*nt is different in the UK. They have other words for women

Men call other men c*nts all the time.

They have some really nasty curse words for women too. I've heard "slag" usually preceded by "stupid" or "f*cking". The Brits get really nasty with their curse words.

[redqueen]

25. Slag = slut nt

[dipsydoodle]

36. Thats an odd one

slag off = mock

No idea of its origin as a slang word. I've got Partridge - I'll check later.

[redqueen]

39. Same as bollox kinda.

Bollox - horrible, bad; nonsense, bullshit

Dog's bollox - awesome

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. I'll be interested to hear what Partridge says

The OED notes that 'slag' was a general term for 'a worthless person' - coward, rough person, contemptible person, petty criminal - before the now usual use of "prostitute or promiscuous woman", which it can only date back to 1958. It seems to assume it comes from slag being the waste from metal smelting (which dates back to 1552).

[dipsydoodle]

43. Partridge says exactly the same

Namely a coward. Also - a slagger is a brothel keeper.

Given that its normal reference is to the dust etc from coal mining and debris from mineral extraction,. both of which represent rubbish , it may be that that was the origin of the slang from the fifties i.e she's rubbish. By the eighties slapper seems to overtaken slag anyway. I can't even remember the last time I heard slag used as slang and the only person I ever refer to as being a slut is myself on the occasions when the nth fry up has completely decimated my stainless steel hob.

off topic - when I opened Partridge it was on the page with the word skiffle which is related to tailors. Goodness knows how come we called Lonnie's music that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. 'slut' has had a US-British distinction too

Katherine Whitehorn: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/05/the-katharine-whitehorn-experience-slut

'Slag' survived long enough for 'The Fat Slags' to become an essential part of Viz in the 80s.

[dipsydoodle]

46. I'd fogotten those two

mainly because Viz changed its FB group without telling anyone : now updated.



Over there I guess they'd just be called Walmart shoppers.

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. I don't see the problem here

In the UK, "cunt" is almost never directed at a woman as an insult. If someone's called that, odds are they're male. (And it's not necessarily used as an insult; one might overhear "you old cunt, how are you?" in a pub for instance). I don't see any problem with this card or the advert, from a British perspective. (I find it interesting that the people clearly most offended in the Guardian comments are Americans.)

[Go Vols]

28. To me,cunt = asshole

I think the card is mildly funny,but know of no one I would send it to.

[Sissyk]

31. That's an old KDF sticker you have there.

Didn't they go country? Carl P still there?

[Go Vols]

35. no Carl P

and they did go country years ago.Sad day.

[Sissyk]

42. Ah!

Loved Carl P!

[Comrade Grumpy]

29. The Situationist ideologue Guy DeBord once held a press conference in London...

...and when a reporter asked him a question, he replied, "I didn't come here to answer cuntish questions!" and stormed off. I suppose he went off to do a psychogeographical stroll of the city.

The Sits were always some of my favorite absurdist revolutionaries.

[cbdo2007]

37. I'm more offended by the term "Merry Christmas"

than I am by the word "cunt".

[99Forever]

38. Given the choice...

... between being offended or buying into agenda driven censorship...


I can get over being offended.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. The fact that people were forced to buy the cards against their will is unconscionable.

Oh, wait.