As you can probably tell from my previous posts, bad language is not something that is of much concern to me. People much more eloquent than I have explained in great detail why the existence of "bad words" is so ridiculous. The definitive source for this argument is George Carlin. George contends that no word can be bad in and of itself and that it is the context in which its used that makes it good or bad. It's a concept I've given a lot of thought to and it works for me. While I don't want to rehash Mr. Carlin's entire theory, I would like to offer some of my own thoughts.
Let's take my "go-to" curse word - fuck. Fuck has tons of different meanings. In verb form, fuck means to have intercourse. It can be replaced by other words like screw, hump, bone, or roger, each of which can be said on TV. So ask yourself, what is it about the sound that represents "fuck" that is so offensive? It is merely a placeholder for a concept. How can a sound be bad? The same sound in reverse is "cuff" - a perfectly fine sound. Like, what makes the sound "shit" worse than the sound "poo"? I also love it when I hear someone talking amongst other adults and they say something like, "I was so effing pissed..." We all know the sound he wanted to make. We all know that effing means fucking. So why not just say it? Where is the offensive part? It doesn't make a lick of sense when you look at it objectively. I think it is high time we provided a blanket amnesty for ALL words (even cunt) and got over whatever sort of puritanical/biblical bullshit hang-ups we have with these sounds. Just think of how cool commercials would be. Stuff like "Lite Beer from Miller. It's fucking good!" or "Buy Irish Spring soap, you shitheads!"
No comments:
Post a Comment