Bad Words replaced by "other" words...WHY?

Originally Posted By X-san

Okay, well I figured I should put this in "world events" even though it's got nothing to do with world events but I'm just guessing Doobie et al would be happier if said subject was in "world events" (the catch all place for "distasteful stuff, if I understand LaughingPlace correctly lol).

So, without using "bad words" (a violation of community standards, one I'm familiar with all too well ), I have to ask...

WHY is it not okay to say that vulgar verb we all are familiar with (NOT talking LP here, but in print and media in general)...BUT it's okay to say "the F-bomb"?

And why is it not okay to use that most vile of racial epithets, and yet it's common and accepted in print and media to refer to that word (which we ALL know) as "the N-word"?

Have we become a society of such ridiculously scared and skittish people that we can't even refer to the word itself IN CONTEXT (such as a news reporter reporting what someone said)?

I'm sorry, but seeing some news reporter referring to "the N-word" seems, to me, juvenile and unprofessional. And yet the word itself is an incredibly powerful social taboo.

Why is that?

And all around, I hear all about the "f-bomb".

Pardon my French here, but doesn't EVERYONE and his brother know the exact word we are referring to?

Doesn't this seem rather stupid to anyone else?

So anyway, does replacing one offensive or objectionable word with something else THAT MEANS AND INDICATES THE EXACT SAME THING really mean anything? Are we just "taking the edge off"?

To me, a reporter reporting that "Mr. Bush used the F-word today, followed by the S-word and then..." sounds like a report delivered by a kindergarten kid. Embarrassing to the reporter, to say the least.

 

Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP

My comment is that manners often start out making sense and then gradually develop such a culture that they don't make sense anymore. Why, for instance, does your salad fork have to be smaller than your dinner fork and why does the fork go on the left and the spoon on the right?

Anyway, that doesn't address your point of the reporter looking silly and juvinile. Let me just say that I appreciate the work arround. I grew up with parents that didn't swear, ever. At my house saying something "sucks" gets you a dirty look from my mom and maybe a comment about cleaning up your language. Now, as an adult, I don't swear, ever (if you don't count "sucks" *grin*). I work in middle schools and high schools as a substitute teacher, I do hear it occaisionally, but I don't say it.

As someone who doesn't say the words, hearing a reporter use the work arrounds doesn't assault my ears, but when I hear the words I flinch. Mostly on the inside, sometimes, depending on the string, on the outside.

So, in summary, yes, I agree it's silly. However I appreciate it as being less assualtive to my ears than the other.

 

Originally Posted By u k fan

I don't know, but I do love to say "Gosh darn it".

I just like the way it sounds!!!

 

Originally Posted By Goofyernmost

Thus is the essence of Political Correctness. We are a silly species.

 

Originally Posted By WilliamK99

There is no difference in saying Gosh Darn it or the other word. It's just more respectful to others to say the nicer version.

Mr. X, we live in a world that is offended by everything, get used to it. It'll get worse....

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

In "High Anxiety", Mel Brooks is addressing a gathering of psychiatrists. As he begins to talk about matters of sexuality, a psychiatrist arrives to the convention late, and sits in the front row with his two young daughters. He apologizes and explains he couldn't find a sitter.

What follows is a very funny scene, where all these scientists, mindful of the kids, alter their language so as not to say and "dirty" words. Brooks discusses "brea--- er, uh, balloons!" and so on.

Everytime I hear a news reporter working hard to get around one of these words, I think of that scene.

 

Originally Posted By DAR

I have no flippin idea why we sometimes replace one flippin word with another flippin. If I were to flippin guess it has to do flippin standards and flippin decorum that some flippin people want to establish. But hey what the flip do I know.

 

Originally Posted By fkurucz

This find of reminds me of a practice of Orthodox Jews, which is to never print the name of god, including the word "God".

Their loop hole to get around this is to substitute one letter in the word. A common substitution I have seen is to replace "God" with "G-d" (I have seen this on Jewish websites like www.JewishWorldReview.com that publish secular editorials). This strikes me as self defeating, as "G-d" simply becomes another name for God.

 

Originally Posted By barboy

Yes X, I have always found that to be one of the most embarrassing features to life in the US post 1994.

And when someone says the "N word" in my presence I turn around and say the whole word in all its glory right back to him/her to show that alec that I don't play the political corectness game --- I don't care who he/she is either, it will be said. One time a woman felt offended but I didn't care and I just laugh in her cowardly face(and if it were allowed here on LP I'd say openly and freely where needed too).

And I don't say "mentally challenged" like some of those nonthinkers out there either-- "mental retard" has worked just fine since its inception.

 

Originally Posted By alexbook

Of course, "retard" started out as a polite euphemism for so that people wouldn't be offended by the blunter "cretin," "idiot," or "imbecile." So, when you call somebody a "retard," you're actually being politically correct, circa 1950.

 

Originally Posted By barboy

Political correctness has gone so far as to create a movement seeking to rid our schools of Mark Twain classics.

 

Originally Posted By DAR

Political Correctness is one of the worst things to ever happen to this country. Thank you pinheaded tweed jacket wearing, pipe smoking sitting up in their ivory towers University and College Presidents.

 

Originally Posted By utahjosh

Where is the line between decorum and common courtesy and unwanted PC?

 

Originally Posted By barboy

You got the wrong culprit DAR(well they are reprehensible too but more in a cowardly way for "caving" to pressure). The real culprits, those who actively want to suppress certain speech, are groups like NAACP, NOW and GLAD.

 

Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove

Hmm, interesting topic. My swear words are "Barf!" and "Rats!" Never realized they were just fillers for the real thing. (When really riled, I go for the jugular: Barfo-butts!)

I guess I could mutter under my breath, "Sweet-smelling roses!" and still be guilty of a euphemism. Wow.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

<Political Correctness is one of the worst things to ever happen to this country. >

On the other hand, some people (and I'm NOT talking about you here DAR, at all) take to railing against political correctness as an excuse for being ill-mannered or even racist, sexist, etc.

How many times have I heard something like "Hey, I know it's not p.c. to say this, but they really shouldn't let these gooks own stores if they're going to take jobs away from real Americans. And I don't care if that's not politically correct, that's the truth."

Well no, that's not the truth you racist cretin. Yet these cretins have seized on anti-p.c. sentiment as a justification for their own ugliness, and even taken it as a badge of pride. Ugh.

In most instances I think one can see whether one is being overly p.c. or not... refusing to use a racial epithet like "gook" has nothing to do with p.c., while saying something like "vertically challenged" is way over the p.c. line, IMO. But in some cases there's a fine line between p.c. and plain good manners and it's not always so obvious.

As for the OP, I think people say "f-bomb" because the alternative actually can NOT be said on broadcast TV still (or in many print venues), so there's a way to say it without saying it. Of course, you've still conjured up the exact same word, but that may be the only alternative in some situations (including LP). "The n-word" is trickier; that has been arguably the most loaded word in American history, and as such excites great passions all around. You have some people who insist that the word should simply be "retired" and never used (Al Sharpton); other people insist that by saying "nigger" as often as possible you rob it of its power (Richard Pryor used to say something like this) or you "claim" it as your own (which some gay people have also done more recently with "queer"). Then there are those who insist there is a difference between "nigger" and "niggah" - one is a racist epithet, the other is a term of affection among the group normally on the receiving end of the epithet. It's a fascinating discussion, as is the whole idea of why some combination of 4 or 6 letters should have such power to begin with.

 

Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan

>>On the other hand, some people (and I'm NOT talking about you here DAR, at all) take to railing against political correctness as an excuse for being ill-mannered or even racist, sexist, etc.

How many times have I heard something like "Hey, I know it's not p.c. to say this, but they really shouldn't let these gooks own stores if they're going to take jobs away from real Americans. And I don't care if that's not politically correct, that's the truth."<<

Bingo. I think there are cases where we get carried away and oversensitive. But on balance, what has become known as political correctness also means simple manners and decency.

 

Originally Posted By barboy

Wasn't McCain stung by the PC crowd with his "gook" remark(or was it "slope", "chalie" or "zipperhead" that got him in trouble). His remark was appropriate because that was the term bestowed on the NVC in the jungles.

Now statements like this

<<these gooks own stores if they're going to take jobs away from real Americans.>>

are very inappropriate and nasty because there is no Vietnam war context just unbridled racism.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

McCain's comment was "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live."

Now he claimed he was referring only to his guards. But if that's so, why not say "I hated my guards." Why use a term that has traditionally been used as a slur against southeast Asians in general?

That said, that was from 2000 and he'll probably be given a pass from most people, though I do have a Thai friend who did not (and still does not) look upon it kindly.

An article from the time:

<a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/hongop.shtml" target="_blank">http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/...op.shtml</a>

 

Originally Posted By Goofyernmost

>>>And I don't say "mentally challenged" like some of those nonthinkers out there either-- "mental retard" has worked just fine since its inception.<<<

I guess that statement just told me the purpose of Political Correctness. Someone is not a mental retard, as you so straightforwardly put it, a person has a situation that can cause varying degrees of mental retardation. There is a big difference there.

I can see now why there is a need to standardize nomenclatures.