THE 'F' WORD.
It's probably the most used word starting with 'F' in the English language: the 'F' word. You know the one I mean. It's so well known that you don't even have to add the next three letters. It is, by definition, a four-letter word: short words that describe sexual or excretory actions. I, of course, have no statistics to back up my guess, but if you imagine, in the daily lives of people, the number of stubbed toes, whacked elbows, spilled or dropped anything, missed appointments, phone calls, buses, opportunities et al, and the things someone shouldn't have said but can't take back that cost them their job, promotion or spouse - well, you will no doubt expect that a large percentage of the people who have suffered one of those misfortunes, will have expleted. (I don't care that 'expleted' is not a verb, I'm making it one.) They may not have meant to, but it slips out.
I think an expletive is very helpful in the right situation or, rather, the wrong situation, when something bad has happened. Uttering an expletive when you have done something stupid to yourself, or have had something bad done to you, is probably better than slamming your fist into a wall with frustration or into the face of someone else. Expletives are a viable means of venting; of letting out intense emotion. Swearing may well save someone who is upset from suffering a stroke, who knows?
When I decided on the subject for this post, it was because I had become annoyed with the prevalence, and apparent acceptance, by the entertainment media of, in particular, the 'F' word. It has been tabu on live television since its inception. Historically, It wasn't heard in the American movies until the 1970's, and on a very few rare occasions in British films earlier. Little by little, over the years, its use has crept increasingly into films but, lately, it's not just creeping, it's marching boldly into television and streaming productions.
In both movies and television shows, with the exception of live and free to air, it is as if the media are trying to force that word, and similar obscenities, down our throats, and it makes me wonder why. Are they trying to make it so commonplace as to make it acceptable, to lose its effect, or are they trying to lower our standards, to slacken our moral fibre? Is it possible that the people who make entertainment in Hollywood and elsewhere overseas, spend their lives spewing profanities instead of other, purpose built and fit for purpose adjectives? Does someone need to send such producers copies of the Oxford English Dictionary and a Thesaurus?
I am also going to be sexist here. I know that men don't particularly like women to swear. It's not about equality, it's about femininity. Swearing isn't sexy. I repeat that. Swearing isn't sexy in conversation. If you stub your toe, that's okay but if you use a swear word as an adjective, noun or verb in place of something more articulate, you're just trying to fit in, and it shows. I'm old enough to be really sure about this. It holds true for all ages of men down to the Millennials. In groups born later than the latter, the 'F' word will have no more effect than 'bugger' or 'blast'. Men want to respect women, and they won't respect a woman who doesn't respect herself. They really don't like them competing with them in the profanity stakes. Oddly enough, that's for the boys. They want to be able to impress a woman occasionally by leaving the swear words out of their conversation, and that won't work if she swears like wharfie too.
I know some of you reading this will be guffawing at these sentiments. You will, I assure you, eventually find out that I am right. Times do change of course and that's why I take into consideration that Millennials onwards will take no umbrage at the use of the profanities we use these days. Media producers today, however, do use them to shock and to add an edge to their shows. I wonder, however, when the dialogue has the actress being as profane as the actor, if the screenwriter has the voice right for the character. Sometimes it just doesn't work for me. I sometimes think that when the dialogue doesn't seem right for a character, a male writer is writing female dialogue or, perhaps, it's a Millennial writing the dialogue for a middle-aged actress.
Is it a good, or a bad, thing that the media is force feeding us profanities in fictional shows? Does it lower the standards of the audience and a younger generation? Do we want impressionable youth spewing words many of us find offensive thinking it's the norm? Will it demystify and take the power from these words? I have personally watched over the decades, as the standard of humanity has deteriorated, and so I would like to see us maintaining a set of standards in relation to certain things in the hope of maintaining certain aspects of civilization.
Words have power. It's no use pretending that they don't. "The pen is mightier than the sword", first came to us from English author Edward Lytton in 1839, and has resonated ever since. We all know words can hurt, especially when coming from people we love, like or admire. Another old adage is, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me". In truth, they shouldn't be able hurt us as they are but vapour on the wind. But they can and do hurt. They can even wound fatally, because of the affect they can have on the mind and emotions of their recipients.
I could go on and on about the power of words, but I don't have to. Anyone who speaks and negotiates their way in this world using a language, knows how many ways their words can be taken the wrong way, misinterpreted or twisted by other people. Words, as such, can even be dangerous. I'm not going so far as to saying swearing is dangerous, but I think you're getting my drift. It is the way people receive what they hear that must be considered when making an utterance.
At a personal level, I don't appreciate when the media, a very powerful instrument in our society, takes it upon themselves to be the arbiter of our morals. In my daily dealing with people over the decades, I haven't heard the 'F' word used in conversation even a quarter as much as I hear it in television and movies. I'm not talking about as an expletive; I'm talking about as an adjective. I'm prone to letting out the 'F' word more often these days when I suffer a sudden misfortune, but then I chide myself. That's because it used to not come so quickly to my tongue. I still find it offensive, and I can't help wondering if I have started using it because the entertainment I ingest is so replete with the word, in even the blandest of entertainment, such as comedies, that it has caused the censors built into my own internal dictionary to accept it as a 'word safe for utterance around children and the general public'.
Basically, my internal dictionary is being subliminally rewired to accept the 'F' word, but the moral code area of my brain does not and will not, accept it. I will remain true to my set of standards, even if my mouth chooses to let the 'F' word fly occasionally, but I will never, ever use it as an adjective.
END