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Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

theguardian.com

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Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#61

Post by mmmBacon »

incanus77 wrote: post #55
ksaj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bird-in-hand gets you pretty close to Paradise, but not as nice as Intercourse. A lot of town names in that area are like this for some probably not-perverse reason.

When I was about 8 in southwestern PA, we took a trip to central PA to visit Gettysburg, the Amish Country, Hershey, and all that. We took a steam train ride that promised a "trip to paradise". I remember two things clearly about that train: 1. If you are sitting close enough to the front and lean out far enough, you get hot steam mist droplets painfully scalding your skin. 2. The train indeed went to Paradise, PA, w…

Sounds like Strasburg railroad.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#62

Post by peterburkimsher »

bartread wrote: post #26
flowerlad wrote: post #8

Well, that's unfortunate that they decided to change the name. But there's always Intercourse, PA if you're looking for a fun sounding place to go: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Intercourse,+PA/@40.036806...

And Shitterton in Dorset: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shitterton,+Bere+Regis,+Wa...

There's a whole map of Vaguely Rude Place Names!

https://www.vaguelyrudeplacesmap.com/

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#63

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #56
wraptile wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess if monetized properly big part of those 100 people could live off the name alone. It's also sad to see this tiny cultural artifact go just because few people are inconvenienced. The stone roads and tiny alleys in the old town are inconvenient yet we don't go bulldozing it all down.

How do you think they can monetize it? How do you monetize random strangers coming to your town, taking photos of themselves in sometimes "lascivious poses" with your sign and sometimes stealing it? What's the business angle there? It's a tiny village. Such places often have a real sense of community that you don't have elsewhere. Injecting a lot of sexual nonsense into their little town because of the name likely fe…

> "How do you think they can monetize it?"

Presumably the same way Hell, Michigan did. Apparently they sell souvenirs and hold events.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#64

Post by DoreenMichele »

setr wrote: post #60
DoreenMichele wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you think they can monetize it? How do you monetize random strangers coming to your town, taking photos of themselves in sometimes "lascivious poses" with your sign and sometimes stealing it? What's the business angle there? It's a tiny village. Such places often have a real sense of community that you don't have elsewhere. Injecting a lot of sexual nonsense into their little town because of the name likely fe…

Like piracy, the easiest solution is probably to just sell a copy of the sign in a fashion (obviously) easier than theft. I doubt the thrill of theft is a significant driver of it.

Perhaps that solves the financial part, but it doesn't solve the part where people who speak some other language are sexualizing the name of their town which apparently wasn't named that way to make some kind of sexual statement.

I'm for the decriminalization of sex work, but I also think that needs to be something someone chooses and is not compelled to do. The very definition of rape hinges on the detail of consent, which is why we can distinguish between kink and rape: People can consent to BDSM. The definition of rape does not hinge on the detail of whether or not it is physically aggressive or even violent.

If their primary issue is that it is an affront to their sense of dignity, making money off of it doesn't fix the issue. That's a bit like saying "If you give a few bucks to the woman you raped, it's somehow okay now that she didn't want to have sex with you."

She's highly unlikely to feel like giving her money afterwards somehow makes it okay to assault her.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#65

Post by ithkuil »

reilly3000 wrote: post #46
HarryHirsch wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who love animals there's always the Royal Dick in Edinburgh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_(Dick)_School_of_Veterin...

Y’all are going to Hell, MI

Idle, Bradford, UK

Kill, Ireland

Time, IL, USA

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#67

Post by oh_sigh »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #63
DoreenMichele wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you think they can monetize it? How do you monetize random strangers coming to your town, taking photos of themselves in sometimes "lascivious poses" with your sign and sometimes stealing it? What's the business angle there? It's a tiny village. Such places often have a real sense of community that you don't have elsewhere. Injecting a lot of sexual nonsense into their little town because of the name likely fe…

> " How do you think they can monetize it? " Presumably the same way Hell, Michigan did. Apparently they sell souvenirs and hold events.

Why exactly would anyone buy the officially licensed Hell shirts when there is nothing stopping anyone from printing that town name on anything?

How many people are going to hold an event in Fugging specifically because the name means a sexual act in a different language?

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#68

Post by ithkuil »

anoncake wrote: post #66
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #58

So the villagers of "Fucking" got together to pitch ideas for a new village name that couldn't be made fun of, and they settled on... "Fugging"?

It's probably the village's name in the local dialect.

There is also another town called fugging on another part of austria, that used to be spelled fucking but changed name more than a century ago. Language drift seems a reasonable guess.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#70

Post by ithkuil »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #44

"Don’t people have any sense of humour these days?” asked one OOeN reader. Another noted: “They’re getting free publicity – they ought to have been happy to have a funny name." Free publicity that leads to sign posts being stolen. For a tiny village of 100 people, this is likely a serious hardship. If it isn't bringing in more money than it's costing them, it's an attractive nuisance , not free publicity.

> In 2012, there were reports that the village of Fucking in Upper Austria attempted to change its name to Fugging through a referendum after receiving large amounts of prank phone calls from English speakers about the village's name.[3] According to these reports, they were unable to do so because Fugging in Lower Austria was already so named;

Prank phone calls are definitely more annoying than some tourists taking a picture at the town sign.

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