Editing Cunt (section)

====United Kingdom====
Broadcast media is regulated for content, and media providers such as the [[BBC]] have guidelines which specify how "cunt" and similar words should be treated.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-language-full|title=Editorial Guidelines – Guidance – Language – Guidance in Full|work=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=13 September 2014|archive-date=25 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225042103/http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-language-full|url-status=dead}}</ref> In a survey of 2000 commissioned by the British [[Ofcom|Broadcasting Standards Commission]], [[Independent Television Commission]], BBC and [[Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)|Advertising Standards Authority]], "cunt" was regarded as the most offensive word which could be heard, above "[[motherfucker]]" and "[[fuck]]".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1EAEACA7-8322-4C86-AAC2-4261551F57FE/0/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090521075426/http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1EAEACA7-8322-4C86-AAC2-4261551F57FE/0/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.pdf | archive-date = 21 May 2009 | title = Delete Expletives | url-status = dead | access-date = 13 September 2013 }}</ref> Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadcast, the word has been aired outside editorial control:
* ''[[David Frost|The Frost Programme]]'', broadcast 7 November 1970, was the first time the word was known to have been used on British television, in an aside by [[Felix Dennis]].<ref name="Silverton" /> This incident has since been reshown many times.<ref name="Indy">{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-c-word-524059.html|title= The C word |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |date=22 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502130148/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-c-word-524059.html |archive-date=2 May 2008 |access-date=13 September 2013}}</ref>
* [[Bernard Manning]] first said on television the line "They say you are what you eat. I'm a cunt."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970201/ai_n14088564/pg_2|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130322004846/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970201/ai_n14088564/pg_2|url-status= dead|archive-date= 22 March 2013|title= Books: A blast of Jacobson's Organ|access-date=6 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1541264,00.html|title= No laughing matter|access-date=6 March 2008 |work= The Guardian | location=London | first=Stuart | last=Jeffries | date=3 August 2005}}</ref>
* ''[[This Morning (TV programme)|This Morning]]'' broadcast the word in 2000, used by model [[Caprice Bourret]] while being interviewed live about her role in ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]''.<ref>{{cite news |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020214201246/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=114876 |url= http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=114876 |archive-date=14 February 2002 |title=Caprice accidentally breaks the last linguistic taboo on television |access-date=6 March 2008 | work=The Independent |url-status= dead | location=London}}</ref>

The first scripted uses of the word on British television occurred in 1979, in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] drama ''No Mama No''.<ref name="Silverton" /><ref name = "Indy"/> In ''[[Jerry Springer – The Opera]]'' (BBC, 2005), the suggestion that the Christ character might be gay was found more controversial than the chant describing the Devil as "cunting, cunting, cunting, cunting cunt".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jan/09/broadcasting.religion|title = F*** you, says BBC as 50,000 rage at Spr*ng*r |access-date=6 March 2008 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Vanessa | last=Thorpe | date=9 January 2005}}</ref>

In July 2007 [[BBC Three (former)|BBC Three]] broadcast an hour-long documentary, entitled ''The 'C' Word'', about the origins, use and evolution of the word from the early 1900s to the present day. Presented by British comedian [[Will Smith (comedian)|Will Smith]], viewers were taken to a street in [[Oxford]] once called [[Gropecunt Lane]] and presented with examples of the acceptability of "cunt" as a word.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007sj0x|title= The C Word: How We Came to Swear By It|access-date=6 March 2008}}</ref> (Note that "the C-word" is also a long-standing euphemism for cancer; [[Lisa Lynch]]'s book led to a BBC1 drama, both with that title.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Groskop|first1=Viv|title=Lisa Lynch obituary Writer who recounted her experience of cancer with engaging candour and published a book based on her popular blog|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/18/lisa-lynch|access-date=20 May 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 March 2015}}</ref>)

The ''Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio'' report by [[Ofcom]], based on research conducted by [[Ipsos MORI]], categorised the usage of the word 'cunt' as a highly unacceptable pre-[[Watershed (broadcasting)#United Kingdom|watershed]], but generally acceptable post-watershed, along with 'fuck' and 'motherfucker'. Discriminatory words were generally considered as more offensive than the most offensive non-discriminatory words such as 'cunt' by the UK public, with discriminatory words being more regulated as a result.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/91624/OfcomOffensiveLanguage.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009191715/https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/91624/OfcomOffensiveLanguage.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2016 |url-status=live|date=September 2016|title=Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio|work=[[Ipsos MORI]]|publisher=[[Ofcom]]|access-date=24 August 2018}}</ref>