WTF

Sometimes I get so caught up in my little circle of lovely, enlightened friends that I forget what a crazy old world it is - I lose perspective. When this happens I switch on Benny Hinn.

Have you seen it? I've never actually sat with the program before but in the wee hours of yesterday morning, huddled in my doona hiding from the wild wind and wilder nightmares, I tuned in. Oh My God. I tried to find a YouTube clip of the segment I saw to share with you but no such luck (curse). It was beyond bizarre. A lot of talk about false prophets and Anti-Christs and dramatic doom culminating in a sneak peak of one of the female leaders strumming a guitar and singing to a weeping follower. As the woman wiped tears from her eyes the voice-over intoned -

'Tune in tomorrow as blah-blah (the leader's name eludes me) sings to a
woman who was date-raped, became pregnant and considered an abortion'.

For Real. Crazy crazy world. Next time I think I'll just stay in bed and sweat out the nightmares.

Slayed by CUNTS!!!!

Now why would anyone suggest I am partial to cheap & hyperbolic headlines, hmmm? Surprising but true - some Craft Cartel members have dropped out of the fold, offended by the title of our next Trashbag, 'CUNTS!' (which is going to be awesome, by the way, head to our facefuck invite to RSVP).

*sigh*

Here's one email from a (now former) Craft Cartelian:

Hi Casey,
I am a member of this group in facebook, and am just wondering, why do all your session titles have to have expletives in them? It's always " clits/ cunts " etc...is it that you are trying to make some sort of feminist statement with regards to a woman's sexual organs? Or am I just reading too much into this...? Think about, if a men's group had " reclaim your cock" in their title, do you think you would find it sexist and offensive? Perhaps not, but I think it's unnecessary, I find it offensive, it intones to me a lack of imagination when it comes to writing. I am at a loss- I think you will lose members as opposed to gaining them.
There are millions of other words in the English language- try some different ones!
-
No longer a member

And my response:

Hi,

Thanks for dropping me a line - I do appreciate you explaining you position and your feelings rather than just disappearing silently. Unfortunately it's not a surprise that some are offended by our use of the term 'cunt'. The reason the next workshop is titled CUNTS is precisely because the word is deemed to be the most offensive in our language and I find that offensive. I think it is wrong that a word that describes a part of the female body doubles as a derogatory slur and I think it is through positive use of the word and positive discussions about female bodies that this will change.
I don't think the correlation to a 'reclaim your cock' group holds because the word 'cock' simply doesn't have the same negative power as 'cunt'. Why is that? What is it that's so horrifically scary about female genitalia that makes this word the worst swear word we've got? These are the questions that I hope will be raised and discussed at the workshop. To shy away from using the word 'cunt' would just be perpetuating the negativity and fear associated with it.

Regards,
Casey