This episode of Sexplanations contains swear words, curse words starting with a, b, c, d, s and so on, not to exclude young audiences. The episode is actually for them, so we're all educated about the terms we hear and say starting with douchebag. 

When you hear, "What a douchebag," you probably imagine a jerk of a guy, someone obnoxious and arrogant. I imagine a plastic or rubber bag that squirts fluid into a vagina and think, probably like you do, yeah that person must be awful because generally douching is not a healthy practice. The vagina is self-cleansing. No need to flesh out the good stuff, douchebag. That's my take, but these words (and I'll include some gestures) are actually considered insults because they're related to sexuality. Being a douchebag isn't shameful because it unnecessarily rinses the vaginal canal. It's because it's a bag for vaginas. Or in this case, a bottle. Douche bottle, douche nozzle, douche canal.

There's so many words like this. Things we say such as dick, prick, twat, cunt, bitch, whore, fuck that have sexual origins and negative connotations you may or may not know. Dick meaning penis, dork meaning penis, prick meaning penis, schmuck penis. All of which also refer to a despicable person. 

Then there are the words and gestures describing what we do with penises. This gesture of stroking a penis until it ejaculates is used to describe multiple things: I'm bored, annoyed, what an egotist. A wanker is someone who masturbates, which shouldn't be a put down because that's healthy self-stimulation, but ask any Brit and they'll tell you it's offensive.

Hannah Witton: Yeah.
Meowitslucy: Mhmm.

And this goes for jack offs, jerks, and cocksuckers too. 

This sucks. When I was growing up, saying "this sucks" was not okay. Lots of mouths were washed out for a word that today is pretty mild. Since 1928, suck has meant fellate, to form oral sex on a penis. It still means that but in 1971 picked up an additional definition of terrible or unfortunate. So take kids born post-1971. Unless told, how are they to know of the mouth-to-penis origin. In context, they hear "The Star Wars prequels suck." and think suck equals bad, but when they try it for themselves "Broccoli sucks," the adults raising them, who aren't keen on kids referring to anything as indecent sex acts, scold them. I think you can understand that a kid saying "Suck it!" is social unacceptable, but if no one taught you, how do you know?!?

Twat, cunt, and pussy all refer to female genitals or in the case of minge, the pubic hair around them. You may be interested to know that twat was included in a Robert Browning poem because he thought that a twat was part of a nuns habit.

"Then owls and bats
Cowls and twats
Monks and nuns in a cloister's moods
Adjourn to the oak-stump panty"

Know your words, kids.

Cunt, while beautiful sounding,
"Oh, oh, u, then n, then cun, cun, snug letters fitting perfectly together"
is considered the most taboo word in my language. Because one, there's the shame of sexual body parts, two, there's the shame of being female, and three, female sexuality- shhhh, don't talk about it.

1726, pussy first meant cat. As of 1879, then it also came to mean female genitalia. The clever or perverted will often talk about pussy with these interchangeable meanings so that mature conversations appear like innocent feline stories.

Do you know this one? This symbolizes eating pussy, not the cat, the vulva. I've noticed kids gesturing like this because they see their older peers do it and don't realize that what they're miming is oral sex, not something for family vacation selfies.

Other body part and fluid slang
Anything ass or booty refers to the buttocks. Cum, come, cumming, coming, or came can mean semen, orgasm, or female ejaculation. Jizz, similar, scum, similar. If you call someone a scumbag, that's a condom.

Then there's the terms that describe our sexualities. Like whore, hoe, slut, and harlot that shame women for having sex or the ways they have it. Or, strange, I can't think of any for men that aren't shaming them for being like women.

Then there's the sign of the horns which could celebratory like "Yeah, heavy metal!" Elsewhere, it could mean you're a cuckold.

Your wife cheats on you. Mostly, these words and gestures are designed to insult people, describe them maybe, but also to shame them. My question is why are our bodies, functions, sexualities, and genders insulting?

Which brings me to bully, those who insult and intentionally harm others. I was curious about what words I use that have sexual meaning I didn't know. I thought about one of the put downs I tend to use, which is bully, and I did my research. Turns out that the original meaning of bully: sweetheart, lover, eventually it became "protector of prostitutes." Language is fascinating, isn't it?!!

Please share in the comments other words and gestures with sexual meanings we may not know, and please don't injure each other with them. Stay curious.

Boop boop, boo doop.

Tomska: If someone were to call me a wanker, I would be less insulted and more amused. Like, ohh you.

Hannah Witton: Bloody wanker. [laughs]