Well now I've been educated. But I probably learned something other than the intended lesson.

[Violet_Crumble]

78. fwiw, I'm an Australian woman...

Okay, the word is a gender slur in the US. I don't think anyone's disputing that. What some people are disputing is that it's not a gender slur in Australia. They're wrong.

...rather to point out that the argument that foreign members earn a special dispensation in using slurs is rejected by some of the same people seeking to justify use of the most vulgar word in the English language to demean women.

I wouldn't use the word here at DU or if I was in America, because I know it's used a different way there. The only person who said 'c**t' in the thread that spawned these new threads was an Australian politician in the Australian parliament. He's not a member of DU and if he joined he'd get nuked on the spot for being a RW fuckwit. Much as I detest him, he wasn't using the word to demean women. He was expressing his dislike of the leader of the opposition as the govt's been getting slammed this week over the Budget, which is likely going to be blocked by the Senate. He could have just as easily called him a wanker, a fuckwit, a dickhead or a bunch of other things, as they're all pretty much interchangeable. The issue isn't that he tried to demean women by calling Bill Shorten a 'c**t', because that's not what he was doing. The issue is that he swore at another member of parliament, which is totally unprofessional, and he should have been suspended from the house for it. Leave that and other profanities for the footy games, the backyard BBQs and admiring yr friends cars, but Parliament's not a place for it...