Arthur, although I have a handful of
"cuss words" in my vocabulary, I try to use them selectively, as one does
very hot spices, appropriately and
sparingly.
But I have noticed that my grown
daughters use profanity much more than I do (or like). I've also noticed that one of them
uses it more around certain males, as if to say, don't mess with me, even if
she is not discarding that one to romance purgatory.
Should we blame television and rap music
entirely? I think there is an
epidemic of abusive language that has to include sports, where tough talk
and mean looks are often considered necessary to the game. Profanity has shock value. That's why it's so prevalent on
dumbed down television and in music.
I believe linguists still track slang as a juvenile phenomenon, and
perhaps there is a link to slang and profanity in pop culture. Much of TV seems to be written for
juveniles by juveniles, anyway. Mostly, however, we may have more
profanity because we have less great vocabulary being spoken
I tried to influence my girls that "potty
mouths" have poor vocabularies, obviously not with great success it seems.
However, I also noticed that my daughter who curses more around men her age
does not do this in front of her young son, her father or her
grandparents. She will,
however, purposely annoy me, and then twist the knife by using a good
vocabulary word I haven't heard her use before.
Sigh.
-
KWC
What we already
knew. Wonder why its happening?
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/23/tv.profanity.ap/index.html
Study: Use of
profanity increasing on TV
"During the 2002-2003 season, the broadcast
networks attempted to rewrite
the book on language standards for
television," the Parents Television
Council, a watchdog group, said in a
report released Monday.
The council said it studied all primetime
entertainment series from a
two-week period in 1998, 2000 and 2002 and
found a jump in profanity on
"virtually every network" and in every time
slot.
The group called on the TV industry to "get serious about reducing
the flood
of vulgarity. ... Barring that, the FCC needs to get serious
about enforcing
broadcast decency laws," the group said of the Federal
Communications
Commission.
The study examined ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB
and UPN.
During the so-called "family hour," from 8-9 p.m., foul language
increased
by 94.8 percent between 1998 and 2002, the study found. It rose
by 109
percent during the 9 p.m. hour in the same period.
The smallest
increase, 38.7 percent, occurred during the last hour of
primetime, 10-11
p.m., when young children are least likely to be in the
audience, the
council said.
The group noted what it called "minor"
improvements.
Foul language in the 8 p.m. hour on Fox fell 25 percent in
the study period.
But the study found profanity rose 75 percent during
the 9 p.m. hour on Fox.
On ABC, offensive language decreased by 17
percent in the study period,
mostly because of improvements during the
latter two primetime hours. But
profanity was up by 61.7 percent during
the family hour, the study found.
An ABC spokesman Monday said the
network had not seen the report and
declined comment. A Fox spokesman
declined comment.
In a similar, earlier study, the PTC found that sexual
content on TV was
less frequent but more
explicit.
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