Wappy word censor

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I see the wappy word censor is still alive and wreaking havoc.

It seems I can't refer to a p.u.s.s.y cat without it becoming p**** cat.

I wouldn't be surprised. What once meant cat, today means something else.

At this point in time, it's pretty unlikely for anyone to say that word and actually mean a feline. You call a cat a cat. If you want to use a "cuter" word you might say "kitty cat." That term has just gone away in regards to actually being a reference to an animal.

One I do take exception to, however, is "fetish." While it's extremely frequently used in a sexual manner, what it actually means is a fixation, or an overwhelming interest.. It wouldn't be at all inaccurate for someone to refer to their special interest as a fetish, without it meaning anything sexual. I've heard the term "fetish" used to describe a benign, non-sexual interest far more often than I've heard the term p.ussy cat used to refer to an animal.
It's not like it's that big a deal, though. You can still express what you want to express without using words that carry an overwhelming sexual connotation. It dosn't seem to me like it matters much.

P**** has been on the word censor since WP started. I know it was when I came onboard.

I use the word "pussycat" all the time when I'm speaking to cats. I've never said "kitty-cat" in my life. Maybe that's a geographical thing...

Ditto. It may be an American (regional?) usage. However, I have to admit that Mrs. Betty Slocombe ("Are You Being Served?") made heavy use of the term as a double entendre. However, that was always in a "smutty" sense, as one of the plethora of nicknames for female genitalia - not in any way as a taboo swearword.

Here, it's actually the opposite.

The word p****(cat) usually means cat. That's not true in all places; I know in Ohio I stopped using it because people automatically thought it meant something else, and after getting in trouble for it a few times, I dropped it. Back down here, it's common, and it means nothing wrong.

On the other hand, fetish is almost always sexual here. It's not a curse word, but it means a sexual fixtation, and that's all it's ever used for.

It's just a culture thing, I suppose.

It's amazing how times have changed, isn't it?

Even so, you're not speaking to any cats on WP. There was this great cartoon of a dog on a computer that said "on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog," but even if you imagine the theory that some of the people behind keyboards could actually be cats, you wouldn't speak to them as cats because you wouldn't know.


Usually when someone is using the word "fetish" in a nonsexual manner, it's kinda tongue-in-cheek, with the knowledge that the term is usually used as meaning a "sexual fetish" but you wouldn't have to specify "sexual fetish" if all fetishes were. The difference to me is that in formal speech, "fetish" could be used to mean any intense fixation, while the term pussycat isn't such a formal term. McTell said he uses it when speaking to cats. So saying "oh, you're such a cute little pussycat, aren't you?" an a talking-to-a-cute-animal voice isn't the same as using it as a technical definition. It wouldn't be incorrect, however, to actually put the word "fetish" into the diagnostic criteria for AS-- we use the term "special interest" to mean what the word "fetish" means when applied in a non-sexual context.
I think actually using the term pussycat to refer to a feline is a UK thing, though, cause I almost NEVER hear it as a reference to a cat. It's always used to mean female genitalia, or to mean a wuss. (Although I'm not completely sure if the usage meaning "wuss" is derived from the female genitalia definition (in similarity to "sissy") or from the cat definition (like "'fraidy cat"))

I think you miss my point. I'm not saying that fetish is a word that should be censored or that it doesn't have meanings other than a sexual one. However, pussycat also has other meanings than a sexual one. So I think that dismissing one word because it has sexual meanings while justifying another one with just as many sexual meanings is flawed logic at best. (Incidentally, McTell may use it only when talking to cats, but I use it when talking about cats, at least in day to day conversation; I don't usually type it out here because it does get censored and because it obviously isn't a widely used word, but my neighbors and I will stand outside and say things like, "Is that striped pussycat pregnant again?" We're not talking to the cat but to each other.)



I'm not from the UK, nor have I ever lived there. Unless the population outside of Atlanta is largely from the UK and has been for many years, it comes from more cultures than just that one.

I'm not exactly sure why that matters. I don't solely use the word when I'm talking to cats; I can conceive of occasions where I would want to use the word "pussycat" whilst on WP.

Perhaps I'm contributing to the Caption the Avatar of the Previous Poster* thread and the user above me has a cat in their avatar. Perhaps I'm talking about the teen comic book Josie and the Pussycats.

(* probably not the thread's actual title)

Ok.. I don't really have an argument to that.. But, notice that the word pussycat is not censored. It's only censored when used without cat, so it's all kinda a moot point.


I'm not really advocating "dismissing" any words, just saying that I don't hear people calling felines pussycats very often anyways. I did run across someone on another site who mentioned that she had been banned from WP without having posted, and didn't know why. Granted, I'm really gullible, but she seemed genuinely surprised that the reason would have been that she had the word "fetish" in her name. It was a reference to something I can't really conceive of as being sexual, and she said it wasn't meant to be a sexual reference. As I said, I am gullible, and it may or may not have been true, but that someone would go to another site, and post that they were confused about why they were banned from WP when they hadn't even said anything, and that a simple obsession with ducks was the reason for their name.. it seemed plausible to me, anyway.

My overall point in this thread, though, is that censoring the word pussycat-minus-cat doesn't really do any harm


Right.. but as we're all seeing now, pussycat isn't censored.. it's only censored if you don't include cat on the end. So the animal isn't censored, but the insult or vulgar reference is. Seems fine to me..

So, you can refer to your pussycat as such, as long as you make it one word. Which isn't an unreasonable way to write it.

I use it without cat on the end too, but it censors it here. Picky as it may be, I hate seeing ***s in my posts, and I refuse to purposefully misspell and/or add extras in. It irritates me, so I stick the word cat on to get around it; I tried up there to not have it completely attached and it censored. Beyond that, I also use a variety of forms whenever I take a fancy to a word; I'll call cats puss too. For the rest of this post though, consider the cat part to be invisible.



Oh, I know. But I'm saying that I don't hear people using fetish very often for anything other than a sexual purpose. I'm not saying that pussycat should be taken off as a censored word, because it is a slang word that a lot of people use in an inappropriate manner. I replied because you posted that pussycat should be censored because it is commonly sexual - which it is - but fetish, which is also commonly sexual, should not be considered sexual. The words and how they're used are not so different; both of them can be used in a non-sexual manner, but that's not common outside of certain areas. You did dismiss, intended or not, the other meaning of pussycat while saying that the same should not be done to other words.



That's something she should have taken up with a mod. There are various unusual (sexual) fetishes out there - statues, cars, balloons, things you just wouldn't think of. So it's quite possible that they thought she was using it in such a manner. If someone used pussycat in their username, even if they were legitmately meaning cat, I'm sure they'd be banned for similar reasons.

Yeah, sure.
I had no idea that that word is now considered as vulgar.
... So, if ever one day I want to post a certain song of Tom Jones, the song will be censored?

In France, we have the equivalent word and it's a cute word.
It's even used with little girls when one doesn't feel like talking in a very scientific manner

And also with real cats of course.

Me too. I use the word when referring to a cat in a "cute" sense. It must be a cultural thing.
I once had a discussion with an American (I'm English) about the different words used for genitals and there are some striking differences. Some matter of fact English words are considered extremely vulgar to Americans and vice-versa.