Bad Language

[poliphilo]

There's a story in this morning's paper about Alastair Campbell's Diaries. Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's polecat in chief and knows where all the bodies are buried. Will he be telling us? No. Apparently his record of the Blair years will be edited to remove anything spicy about  Blair's relationships with George Bush and Gordon Brown. He's also going to be going through it with a blue pencil- on his master's orders-  to remove all trace of Blair's copious swearing.

OK- I can understand the reticence about politicians who are still in the business of government- that's just good manners-  but the swearing thing is bizarre.  Everybody under sixty says "fuck" and "cunt".  Fucking this, fucking that-  it's  the lingua franca. You'd think Blair would be happy to have it revealed that he uses the same vocabulary as his subjects. 

But what's even odder is that we still regard such language as shocking. Little kids use it among themselves (and how!)  but it can't be broadcast on TV before 9 o'clock  in case their infant minds should be blasted. This "ooh matron!" reaction is not exactly hypocritical It's an involuntary, preconscious, atavistic thing.  It's more a case of our not having thought things through.

The boundaries of acceptable speech are always shifting. When I was a little kid "bloody" and "damn" were very bad words and I got into dreadful trouble for using them.  People avoided offence by using laughable homophones like "ruddy" and "darmed". These days blasphemy is acceptable.  Its charge  has faded with the power of the Church. "God" and "Jesus" are common expletives and as harmless as "O dear" or "bother".  

"Fuck and "cunt" came in out of the freezing cold with Lady Chatterley.  They were mainstream by the mid-80s. I was slow in the uptake and didn't start using them in everyday speech until c. 1990. Now my  conversation is as obscene as Tony Blair's.

A few more years and "fuck" and "cunt" won't cut it any more. They'll be as tame as "ruddy" and "damn". I wonder where we go next? Actually there's nothing out there that's still considered unsayable- except for the language of racial abuse- and that comes from rather a different place and has different applications. Maybe that's why we maintain the fiction that "cunt" and "fuck" are shocking; we're in imminent danger of running out of swear words.

Comments

[aellia.livejournal.com]

It amuses me that those two words are used out of all context.
How can you visualise "Fucking Hell","You are a fucking idiot" etc!
And how can you call anything other than a cunt..a cunt. let alone a man,woman or dog

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz's standard response to the exclamation "fuckin' hell" is "I hope they do."

[fidget]

I find this argument to be funny. Not because it's without merit, but rather on account that I'm an American. In America, using "shit" and "goddamn" in conversation and on television is the current controversial topic. Hearing "fuck" and "cunt" would probably give people heart attacks.

You guys can actually say those two words on television after nine o'clock? Seriously? I suppose here it's allowed, too, but only on a few cable stations after midnight. Otherwise, all the swears are usually dubbed or blanked out. And, of course, I only mean the "F" word.

Oh, God Bless America indeed.

[fidget]

And, of course, I only mean the "F" word.

Sorry. I should have clarified. American television would never dream of using the word "cunt", since so many people find it to be horrifically offensive.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's not quite true. The single funniest thing I've ever seen on TV was an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which the newspaper obituary of Larry's wife's aunt appeared- thanks to Larry's sloppy handwriting- as a tribute to a "beloved cunt".

[fidget]

Oh! That was one of the few episodes of that show I've seen. I about died laughing.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

"Fuck" is variable. For example it's beeped out on Jonathan Ross's chat show, which is after 9 pm, but it may appear in films or drama, and that would be on the mainstream channels such as the BBC. The "C" word has, as far as I know, only been broadcast when guests are unexpectedly naughty on chat shows and it accidentally slips out. It may possibly sneak through in Serious Drama if on late enough.

Neither "fuck" nor "cunt" is general in polite conversation where I live, but possibly that's because I'm in Wales and poliphilo is in a big English city. *g*

[fidget]

Oh, I see. Polite conversation or not, it seems that the "C" word is used more often there than here; it's liable to get the crap beat out of you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't want to create the impression that I go round "effing and blinding" all the time. Context is all. I watch my language round the old folks and am cautious with strangers- until I've gauged their sensitivities. Our decorator Carl- who's a good friend- made the mistake of saying he found "cunt" a disgusting word- so now Ailz and I make a point of working it into the conversation as much as we possibly can whenever he's around.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Fuck" is heard a lot on Brit TV, "cunt" less often. Interestingly some of the shows with the highest volume of "bad" language are American (non-network) ones- like Deadwood and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Films that use "bad" language are normally broadcast uncut and unbleeped- but only after the 9 o'clock "watershed".

[fidget]

Ah. Therein is the difference, then. Those American shows are only broadcast on HBO, which is some special cable channel you have to pay a lot more to have. Technically, I guess they can do whatever they want, but I'm not sure why the other special subscription channels can't (or don't). Then again, I don't watch much television to begin with (with the exception of science shows, History Channel, and House), so I really have no clue what's going on.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

HBO is pretty damn amazing. They've created some wonderful shows.

Rome is another of theirs- a co-production with the good old BBC.

[fidget]

I miss a lot of things on HBO. My family gets it, but it only comes on the television downstairs, which I am never able to use. However, my drummer loves Curb Your Enthusiasm, so I bet he has the DVDs. I'll have to borrow them from him.

When I'm in a particularly pissy mood, I invent insults that center around one offensive word. For instance: cuntbasket, cuntmuffin, cunttard, cuntweasel, and cuntbug all came about one hot day when I was stuck in Ohio traffic.

Normally, I come across as polite and kind of shy, so those insults helped me blow off some steam that afternoon.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Those are splendid. They have an Elizabethan ring to them. One can imagine Falstaff using them.

People were so much more inventive with their insults and expletives in "the good old days".

[fidget]

Inventing insults is one of my favorite hobbies. Needless to say, I get pretty bored living in Pennsylvania.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Plenty of things thereabouts to use the expletives on, eh?

I spent time in Philly once- and wombled round rural Pennsylvania a bit.

[fidget]

I mostly use the foul language in Ohio.

Pennsylvania is a big place, and I'm on the opposite side of the state than Philly.

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

This is a complaint I've heard from writers, actually: if in everyday language you use the nuclear weapons of swearwordery for fairly ordinary events (e.g. if everyone you speak about is a "motherfucker"), then what do you say when you're honestly and truly upset that hasn't been drained of all its potency?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah well, that's what writers are for, isn't it? To solve these tricky linguistic problems.