I would have to agree with your college. It's exactly what we've been trying to do with the word "hippie". You just need to expose people to positive associations with the word, and suddenly it starts to mean something else. Originally the word "hippie" meant people who looked and acted and thought differently from the mainstream but were very interesting and "hip".

Then the more conservative elements in society villified the word with negative associations like drug abuse, dirty people, etc. Likewise, cunt was just a word for a body part. Again conservatives (& chauvinists) looked askew at this and decided there was nothing good about that word (implying there was nothing good about that body part!), and thus it came to be used in a derogatory fashion.

Sexual liberation and Women's Liberation happened decades ago! People need to wake up! I say it's time to liberate the words "cunt" & "hippie" so they regain their original meanings and not let conservatives dictate how we view the world. It's their view that is perverted!

The Old Hippy