Right now in the news we’re having a conversation about ‘the c word’. That’s how it’s referred to on the TV and radio coverage; in print it’s written as c---. Only a few brave outlets are prepared to write ‘cunt’. It’s in the wake of journalist Andrea Vance’s column about the rollback of pay equity legislation and cancellation of 33 existing claims (including those for nurses, teachers, midwives and social workers), and Brooke van Velden’s repeating of this in Parliament.

Vance wrote this:

The coalition sisterhood trying to sell us the idea that this is somehow progressive.

And the phalanx of female MPs, a generously-paid, traditionally overvalued trade, shafting the underpaid women doing vital, feminised labour that keeps the country functioning.

Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c... to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the arse of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet.

I was called upon to speak about the van Velden incident on RNZ yesterday, when I made my regular appearance on The Panel (6-7 each weeknight; a fun hour if you’ve never listened).

What I said was basically this: I absolutely endorse the content and spirit of this column, if not totally the language used.

What Vance is saying is that it is absolutely galling, as a woman or frankly as a functioning human being of any gender, to see powerful women pulling up the ladder on other women. She’s not the only one who thinks so; Dame Anne Salmond also wrote a blisteringly good opinion piece on this; please read it.

In her column, Vance points out that this legislation will have long-term impacts on not just the hundreds of thousands of women affected, but also on broader society, the economy, productivity and GDP. She also notes the impact on health; something I posted about on Instagram in relation to this. It was the first thing I thought of, actually, when I found out about this rushed-through injustice.

What I mean is this: our health is not just determined by our individual choices and practices. That is SUCH a small part of it. The social determinants of health - things like socioeconomic status; education; housing; food security; access to healthcare; political systems and policies…. These are far more impactful on our health. These things are barriers before we even get into what we do or don’t do.

So when you take away pay equity, you take away health equity.

Women already earn less and retire with less money than men. Women spend more years in poor health than men. Women continue to experience gender bias and discrimination in the health system. Pay equity affects health equity. Pay equity should not be a ‘nice to have’. We need to remember this at election time.

Anyway, back to the c word…. It really bugs me that this word is – as described by Germaine Greer – ‘one of the few remaining words in the English language with a genuine power to shock.’ That this word describes the vulva – a very important body part owned by women – is insulting to women, surely? I mean I know we call people dicks and cocks and pricks, but cunt is worse, I think we can all agree. But why? It shouldn’t be this way. We need to start to re-claim the word. Cunts, after all, are beautiful, strong, resilient and powerful.

Interestingly when I looked into the etymology and history of the word cunt, it’s quite chequered. Cunt has not always been a swear word; for a long time it was simply the name of a body part. It’s been used since at least the 1200s; and it has origins that seem murky; possibly Germanic; possibly Latin (from cunnus) or maybe even Indian (from Kunti, the Hindu goddess). Over time it has devolved into a rude word; now it’s still the rudest – witness the furore over van Velden’s use of it. (What a gift to her that was! She was able to recast herself as the victim of gendered abuse, thus distracting us from the real issue).

The other interesting thing I noted from my brief Google dive is that the use of cunt as an insult has subtle differences between English-speaking cultures. According to Wikipedia, cunt is mostly used as an insult to women in the USA. Whereas in NZ and Australia and the UK, it’s more equally applied across genders. And in this part of the world, also, it’s used sometimes in a neutral sense to describe someone; usually a man. For example: ‘Oh yea that’s my mate Chris; he’s a good cunt’.

Perhaps that shows there’s potential for cunt to once more evolve into a generic word used to describe a body part. Who knows. What do you think – shall we start saying ‘cunt’ more? Or is it a step too far for you?

I took my clit to Parliament
Strangely, the above controversy intersects a bit with what I did last week. On the very evening that the pay equity legislation was introduced, I was there in the beautiful Legislative Chamber at Parliament, speaking as part of a briefing for MPs about menopause. I did indeed take with me my 3D model of the clitoris, as a symbol of the fact that women’s health and women’s bodies have been overlooked and dismissed in medicine for thousands of years. Did you know that the full anatomy of the clitoris was not discovered and published until 1998? Ridiculous, right?

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Anyway – I hope what we shared might be the start of some policy action in this area.

What my fellow speakers and advocates and I want is:

• Funding for more education of doctors on menopause

• Midlife health checks for women

• A public education campaign

• Education about menopause, alongside puberty and pregnancy in our school curriculum.

It’s worth noting something event organiser Sola Freeman pointed out in her introduction: this policy is a vote winner. Just look at Australia: the Australian Senate ran an inquiry last year which revealed the widespread burden of menopause. Then two months ago, in the lead up to the election, the Australian Labour government announced new women’s health spending of half a billion dollars, with the lion’s share going to menopause.

Before the announcement Labour was 16 points behind the Coalition; it wasn’t long after that that they rallied and pulled ahead. And then they won the election! We can’t say for sure, but we have to assume some of those voters were women? Again: something to remember next election year. (Don’t worry; I’ll remind you).

Why is finding the right size clothing so hard?
On a lighter note, and in case you missed it – here’s a piece I wrote recently for RNZ on the eternal struggle of women: knowing what size you are in any given brand of clothing. As someone who sews and wears vintage, I’ve long ago stopped caring about the sizes on labels. I have clothes in my wardrobe sized everywhere from an 8 to a 16.

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But I know this is real struggle for many, many women. And I do notice this on the rare occasions I shop for clothes in regular shops: knowing what size you are is completely random; a lottery. Online can be even worse – as part of this story I did a table of what the measurements are for a size 12 is eleven different brands. Guess what: there’s zero consistency. You might find comfort in this article, then, and there are some useful tips from a couple of experts as well. Read the full article here.

Until next time!

NB