{"id":130827,"date":"2025-03-22T00:27:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T00:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-worst-word-in-the-world-is-now-used-to-describe-a-must-have-hairstyle-abc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T00:27:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T00:27:47","slug":"the-worst-word-in-the-world-is-now-used-to-describe-a-must-have-hairstyle-abc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-worst-word-in-the-world-is-now-used-to-describe-a-must-have-hairstyle-abc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The 'worst word in the world' is now used to describe a must-have hairstyle – ABC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BERITA BAHASA INDONESIA
TOK PISIN
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By Virginia Trioli
Topic:<\/span>Women
Leslie Bibb's hairstylist has demonstrated how he created her "c–ty bob".\u00a0 (Reuters: Danny Moloshok<\/span>)<\/cite>
The last time I heard a woman yelled at in the street, the tirade ended in the time-honoured tradition of an angry bloke calling her a "stupid See-You-Next-Tuesday".
It's an international term we all recognise, like it's the "worst word" in the world for the "worst thing in the world". Or so we've always been told.
But if by chance I ever run into that beleaguered young woman again I have some wonderful news to share with her: there's now a haircut to go with the thing that guy thought she was, and a rather fabulous way of life as well.
While most of us have been busy sticking fast to the received wisdom that the C-word is the most appalling thing a person can utter, and the worst thing you can ever be called, a generation and several cultures of younger women have been clawing it back \u2014 and they've styled it with boots, a cute skirt and a give-no-damns attitude that they call "looking c–ty"<\/a>.
Seriously. A quick search on social media may shock you with how common, casual and uncoupled from shame and insult the term now is \u2014 it's one of self-admiring empowerment.
Even so, when one of the stars of the new hit season of the White Lotus series, Leslie Bibb, this week shared social media footage of being given a new haircut for her character, the name of this haircut would have landed like a fish in the face for many women.
Bibb's stylist, Chris McMillan, joyfully says he's giving her a "c–ty little bob" \u2014 the name given to the preferred look of a generation of K-pop princesses \u2014 as she flips her blunt tresses. And McMillan, the originator of the now immortal "Rachel" hairstyle, knows something about the cultural power of a good cut<\/a>.
Given this is your ABC, I have a delicate task ahead of me here discussing this remarkable social and lexicographic trend. I have no problem with the word. In fact \u2014 and get ready to clutch your pearls \u2014 it's how many women I know, and how my women friends and I describe ourselves and each other, and we do it with great affection and pride. It's also a double-edged little dig when needed. As a descriptor, the word is highly flexible \u2014 the perfect mix of being appalled and full of admiration, often at the same time.
And yes \u2014 I am avoiding use of the word in this piece, finding other ways instead and inserting spaces where there could be innocent letters: all of which makes a point about female shame probably better than I can below.
But that's the mainstream reality still, even if that reality derives from an historical misogynistic loathing.\u00a0
Let's consider this a social history lesson in the rich and changing history of the term.
We won't go all the way back to ancient Hindu goddesses or red-light district street names in London of the 1200s. As an adjective, the word has more recent origins in the gay and drag communities, to describe someone confident, edgy and exuding powerful female energy: in ballroom culture such looks were described as "serving c—". Drag empress RuPaul popularised the acronym Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent as a high form of praise in drag presentation.
The evolution of swear words proves how flexible and adaptable they are. But there do they originate?
But in K-pop culture, it's a way of life<\/a>.\u00a0
On TikTok, the young, rich and successful singers of South Korean pop music dressing have made dressing "c–ty" as commonplace and uncontroversial as dressing "mob wife" or "stealth wealth". It's a style that's seen as cute, sexy, powerful and just edgy enough. To my eye, many of the TikToker's outfits look like something stolen from Chrissy Amphlett's stage wardrobe: I suspect she would have just loved that term.
But the word has also been stealing into more regular use \u2014 as a term of affection between friends, or as an accompaniment to a general sense of appreciation. Even so, it's interesting how many men the word upsets when it's been a preferred weapon of choice for so many of them.
A friend of mine (same age) shrank in surprise when he saw his son, a musician, affectionately greet his fans with the term.
Another friend visibly blanched when I said I liked the word and along with many female friends used it myself sometimes. He almost pleaded with me to understand how irredeemably ugly he thinks the word is. Now it was my turn to blanch: so much disgust for this little word? The word that describes what Courbet painted as The Origin of the World?
Second-wave feminists like Germaine Greer embraced the word as a means of reclaiming power. (Kane Hibberd\/Getty Images<\/span>)<\/cite>
The word has long lived as a synonym for disgust. And that's why this current youthful reclaiming of the word can be seen a quiet triumph. Decades after Germaine Greer gave up trying to reclaim that word as one of power \u2014 she famously wore T-shirts with the slogan \u2014 a generation of women have found a way to make it a way of style and life.
I know many different social groupings of men in Australia have for some time used the term as one of transgressive affection for each other, but there's something breathtakingly strong about women using it with and about each other.
We know the great depth of affection that we have for the thing itself. We know its power and mystery.
Five decades after publication, Germaine Greer's transformational feminist blockbuster is still relevant.
The word is ours to say, and yes even we use it in a pejorative sense sometimes, but never with the kind of self-loathing annihilation that those throwing the term at us hope to achieve.
So now, if someone ever yells at you and calls you a c–t, tell them they have no idea how much. And that now you've got a hairstyle to go with it.
This weekend you can inform yourself of the pitfalls of tween skincare<\/a> and immerse yourself in the joys of weird medieval animal art <\/a>\u2014 gargoyles are just the beginning \u2026
And let me share some of the joy of having your television and musical experiences expanded by the people you share your life with: a quite astonishing anime called Arcane<\/a> has been the big hit in our house recently, even more for me because of its exceptional soundtrack: try this Belgian hip-hop singer-songwriter Stromae \u2014 a little sly, sexy cha-cha about modern love for your day. Go well.
Virginia Trioli is presenter of Creative Types and a former co-host of\u00a0ABC\u00a0News Breakfast and Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne.<\/strong>
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