The sound and silence of the 'C' word: why such hatred for women?

In closing, she uttered the crucial word: 'And finally, Mr Speaker, 'I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but no means no.'

Apparently 'vagina' is not to be said anywhere, unless it is in male company alone. According to Republican Rep. Mike Callton:

'What she said was offensive … It was so offensive, I don't even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.'

Initially failing to advise for how long the banning would last, ultimately the Legislature relayed to Rep. Brown that she could return after one day's 'time out'. That, at least, was how it was described by another member of the House, Republican Rep. Wayne Schmidt: 'As I said to someone up north here, it's like giving a kid time out for a day, you know. Hey, time out.'

Thus it seems that speaking women's body parts – or a most particular part – is placed in the category of 'kids' uttering 'dirty words behind the bike sheds'. Perhaps if the altercation on the British playing field had occurred in the safety of the locker room, it would never have gone beyond the categorisation of the players (as reported in the Terry trial) as 'what happened was handbags' or 'handbag stuff'.

Well before the latest revelations of female-body-part-abuse on the playing (sic) field, in her book How to Be a Woman, journalist Caitlin Moran projected another point of view. Reflecting upon the need for a woman to have 'the words to say it' when it comes to describing our bodies ourselves, and in particular that most intimate of body parts – intimate insofar as women are concerned but apparently very much less so when it comes to the men of the football field – she says of discussion between herself and her sister:

'Certainly the solution to [the] problem was realising that – when it came to both breasts and vaginas – language wasn't really necessary. After a short period of referring to them, jokily, as "Upstairs, Downstairs" – which had the additional benefit of making them sound like a classy BBC production … it dawned on us that we could simply point at the relevant areas, whilst mouthing "there", extravagantly, in the manner of Les Dawson. "There" and "there" worked by way of a holding operation until we finally felt worldly and louche enough to use the words "tits" and "cunt" – for me, 15, and for Caz, around 27 …

Back on the British playing ground, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) has been urged to send off players 'for X-rated rants'. Its chair, Clarke Carlisle, is reported as saying the PFA should 'consider major changes to the sanctions for swearing' and it is suggested that the John Terry case 'looks likely to bring major changes' to English football with the players' union 'calling for their own members to receive red cards if they use foul and abusive language to each other', Carlisle saying:

At present a red card for foul and abusive language is shown only when a player abuses match officials. What the [PFA] should … do is order referees to show the red card even when players abuse each other.

Notably, as with the Australian Rules 'code' on racist language, there is no reference to the sexism or, bluntly, some may say woman hatred that lies in the use of the 'c' word. Of course it would be wrong to suggest that racism is absent. Indeed, an exchange in the Terry trial may be seen as confirming this with high resonance. In testifying, Ferdinand said 'he did not hear the comments Terry made at him'. However:

… he would have been "hurt and disappointed" if he had heard Terry call him a "black c---". "When someone brings your color into it, it takes it to another level and it's very hurtful," Ferdinand said.

Although he doesn't realise it, Ferdinand is articulating clearly and objecting to a negativism which is racist sexism, namely the abuse of women of colour: Afro-Caribbean British women, Indigenous Australian women, African American women and women nationals or descendents of nationals from the countries of the African continent, Indian subcontinent and Asia-Pacific states. The racism, as with the sexism, lies in the 'c' word, the word that cannot be spoken except on the football field and amongst men.

The women of Michigan saw this, in the contretemps (albeit so much more than a spat) occurring in the Legislature, and the gross denial of free speech, when a woman is speaking it, that lies in the banning of Rep. Lisa Brown. Cladding themselves in T-shirts bearing the word 'VAGINA', waving banners and holding aloft placards repeating it, they supported their Representative in her right to utter the 'unspeakable'. Staging massive protests, they came in their thousands to the rally held on the Legislature's steps, where playwright Eve Ensler spoke from her renowned work, The Vagina Monologues,along with Brown and other women from the House who refused to be silenced.

Caitlin Moran has adopted the Anglo-Saxon word as her talisman in the fight back against the hatred of women too often expressed in the word that can not be spoken out loud – except amongst men and, then, in derision.

When those in authority recognise that it is not racism, but sexism – indeed, misogyny – lying at the heart of the abuse which confronts them, perhaps they may go beyond the non-racism codes to codes that affirm and uphold the rights and dignity of women. When all on the sporting field embrace such a code, it may be hoped that those elected to represent women (as well as men) can bring themselves to understand that a woman is the sum of all her parts, and those parts have names and titles that can be spoken out loud, without scorn, when the woman who make up the sum are admitted to their rightful place in humanity.