Only Words
posted in General |ONLY WORDS
Not long ago, my wife and I rented a movie and settled down for a quiet evening at home. It was an eminently forgettable movie whose name I can't recall. After 10-15 minutes of crude, vulgar, obsecene language, I hit the reject button and returned to network TV, bland as it may be. I just do not feel comfortable being subjected to gutter language watching TV in my own family room.
Over the years I have always been impressed by the many men who can successfully manage and use 2 distinct vocabularies – one for mixed company and the other for all- male company. It is almost as though they can flip a switch when talking to a bunch of guys or chatting with ladies being present. Maybe it is a vestige of the days of chivalry (if there ever was one) or just the product of good parental training, but the presence of the fair sex has had a great cleansing effect on speech. I can comment from a bit of personal experience here. In addition to being raised in a rough and tumble coal/steel environment, I spent three years in the military and three more years in a college fraternity. Add to that athletic locker rooms and various sports teams. The story was always the same – storm trooper language at one place, and carefully used words at the other. At one time or another I think I have heard every conceivable crude, vulgar, obscene term known to man — in all the various forms, including verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, participles, infinitives, gerunds, etc. etc. And for the most part, with few exceptions, nary a slip of the tongue at the wrong time.
Now things have changed. The Hollywood elite and the entertainment industry are bound and determined to de-sensititize the public when it come to filthy language. Not only that, it seems that the route to stardom for young actresses nowadays is the ability to use vulgar and obscene language to “emphasize reality”. And TV and the movies have had an unmistakable effect on young people who think it is cool to use gutter language. Personally, I am repulsed by foul mouthed women.
At a time when using crude language is more and more commonplace with women, the need for a dual vocabulary among men becomes less and less. Too bad. Loss of a real skill. The last barrier, of course, is the use of the F— word in prime time TV. Now it is just bleeped out. Soon it will fall the way of “doggone” or maybe even “hell”. And the entertainment moguls will say, “What the F—, it's only a word”
We are only 3 bleep spaces away.