Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Ben Peek and the Letter "C"

I will post what I wrote in class in response to the question: Which entry in "Twenty Six Lies/One Truth" have you enjoyed the most so far? I think we may be the only blog group where every member chose the same entry or entries. I chose the entire "C" chapter in general with some emphasis on the seventh entry.

My favorite entry/chapter was definitely the "C" chapter. This is by no means based upon the sheer profanity or the shock factor. I actually found his argument about why the "C-word" is considered so offensive in our society, where as other words are seen as less offensive when they actually might be just as, if not more, profane or demeaning. Speaking from personal experience, I have never used the "C-word" in the presence of a woman, However, I have seen other males do so to disastrous effect. Adversely I've never took much offense to something like "dickhead" which is pretty much a masculine equivilent, so I see his point.
I especially enjoyed the passage from the seventh entry where he argues that females should be offended by the offensiveness of the word, and that some feminists have already made this point. His justification is as follows "If someone was to tell me that my cock was considered the physical manifestation of the foulest word in the English language. I'd be pretty fucking pissed off" I think he makes a pretty good case.

On another note, the eight entry in that chapter is a little bit suspect on a couple of different levels.


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