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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