The song, video, and Banks were a huge internet sensation, but even those thrilled with her hit found her sexuality shocking. In a December 2011 story for Self-Titled magazine, Banks’ interviewer Arye Dworken admitted, “It’s jarring hearing a young girl say ‘cunt’ so often.”

Banks replied, “It’s so funny because I didn’t know it was that offensive…I feel like cunt means so feminine.”

So, should you start saying cunt, and when would doing so be okay? It all depends. It may be an empowering move when used in the right spirit. But do consider context. “I do use it now, partly in jest, knowing it’s offensive but not meaning it that way,” Fidler says. “But I still wouldn’t say that word around my mother.”

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