Penalizing Profanity Promotes Use of It
Profane language is used once every six minutes on network television shows, every two minutes on premium cable shows, and every three minutes in major motion pictures, according to a new study by the Centre for Media and Public Affairs¹.
Upon learning this information, one would make the assumption that profanity is another common attribute to our daily lives, such as brushing our teeth. But what is profane language? Webster's dictionary defines it as being "the condition or quality of being profane - abusive, vulgar, or irreverent - and the use of such language." However, although society is being exposed to this "coarse" language repeatedly, many are still being penalized for using it in day-to-day situations. The fact is, no matter what we do, profanity will always be there, whether it be in the form of the "f" word, or the generation's most recent slang.
The basis of the problem is that the context of profane language has evolved to the point that its usage, to a certain degree, no longer invokes feelings of offence. Rather than being reserved for "moments of severe rage", it is now being used in day-to-day situations without direct intention. Profane words have progressed from simple adjectives, to complex expressions, falling into nearly every grammatical category in the English language -verbs, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, adverbs, pronouns, nouns, possessive, etc. Until profane language resumes invoking the same transgression it had previously inflicted, its restriction will not hold up.
But the real question is, whether people in society should be penalized for using language, which has obviously been absorbed and accepted by the television and radio audience. ...
... middle of paper ...
...he use of this language, society is inadvertently promoting its use, because the more unattainable something may be, the more attractive. Profanity will never come to an end, until the television and radio companies discontinue producing entertainment containing it. However, in order for this to occur, there must be a great demand from the public, which there currently is not. Had society truly sought the end of profane language, it would have ceased long ago. If society has accepted it and television is promoting it -- why penalize those who use it?
Bibliography:
1. Centre for Media and Public Affairs: http://www.cmpa.com/archive/rudeandcrude.htm
2. Toronto District School Board: http://www.tdsb.on.ca/stucom/safeschools/default.htm
3. "Profanity Lands Man in Hot Water" Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/news/locmac/qcuss24.htm
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
(Carlin, 1977) The introduction to Carlin's monologue listed those words and repeated them in a variety of colloquialisms or (dialect): I was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words and the words that you can't say, that you're not supposed to say all the time. I was thinking one night about the words you couldn't say in the public, ah, airwaves, um, the ones you definitely wouldn't say, ever. Bastard you can say, and hell and damn so I have to figure out which ones you couldn't and ever
Swearing has the ability to get someone in a whole load of trouble at the dinner table with their mother but could also be their choice of words when they accidently stub their toe on the coffee table in the living room. Natalie Angier discusses this controversial topic of words that shouldn’t be said in her article feature in The New York Times, “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore”. Provoked by a recently proposed bill to increase fines for using swear words on television, Angier analyzes not only the impact of swearing, but also where the desire to speak obscene words comes from. She references many credible studies and sources as she unfolds her argument. She uses a diverse slew of studies, experiments, and famous pieces of literature and
For centuries, governments have tried to regulate information thought to be inappropriate or offensive. Today’s technology has given the government an excuse to interfere with free speech. By claiming that radio frequencies are a limited resource, the government tells broadcasters what to say and what not to say. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) carefully monitors news, public, and local programming for what they consider obscenity (Hyland).
...es not turn our society toward violence. There are other possible solutions though, like making a list of words that are indecent, meaning offensive to community standards. This would illiminate harmful curse words that are derogatory.
One example is the use of the word “fuck”. In my house hold growing up I attempted to use this work once when I dropped a plate. It was the angriest my father has ever been at me. This word is often considered the worst of the curse words in modern English. This simple utterance has been in use since the early 16th century. Fuck often evokes strong emotion and response, considered one of the seven dirty words that can’t be said on American broadcast
In a college environment, instructors have different techniques to educate their students. They have the academic freedom, where as they can teach in how ever manner they would like to and it leads to the use of profanity in class. While teaching, there are curse words thrown around in the lesson. We live in a society with people who apply profanity as part of their language on a daily basis. As a result, students are unconcerned when an instructor uses it while teaching, but there are some who can be religious and find it offensive. I believe instructors should not apply profanity in class because it shows the lack of professionalism, they should stand as a role model, and it’s disrespectful to different religious belief.
There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting" words those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace (Downs 7).
...n the January 1993 Library Journal, makes a similar suggestion: "Ultimately, however, we hope we use language that is more sensitive without enforcing strident political correctness or orthodoxy." We, as a society, are so concerned about avoiding confrontations that we are going overboard changing non-offensive names. The attempt to avoid possible protests of sensitive pressure groups by sanitizing our language is, in my opinion, censorship.
When many individuals think of a dangerous word their minds automatically think of the words that they chose to omit when in the presence of children or words that are thought instead of spoken in formal places, but what about the words that sit along the fine line between appropriate and inappropriate? For example, the term redneck has a different meaning to those inside community versus that of those outside. This word is the most dangerous because it is looked down upon and praised at the same time. The term redneck should be socially acceptable in everyday language, because those who it describes take pride using it to describe themselves.
Banning a book on the basis of profanity is merely a superficial reason of those who wish to limit beliefs that do not coincide with their own. By excluding a novel from a high school curriculum in order to shelter students from profanity, is an attempt to do the impossible. Profanity is found everywhere. According to TV Guide, "Profanity is uttered once every six minutes on American primetime television...
Profanity is often thrown around like it is nothing, but it can ruin a lot of things for people who use it on a regular basis. Christians are an example of people who do not like profanity. It is a sin to curse and Christians take profanity seriously. So many people use profanity so much that they do not even realize that they are using it. Some people think that it is “cool” to cuss and use foul language, those people throw bad words around like it is nothing. The lesson that profanity teaches is that using bad language can make people frown upon you and will not get you far in
There are still people that go to church and don't cuss and cares about there family vale and try to keep that away from their kids as long as they can.they want the censor stuff for there kids.Cursing
Profanity in pop music has become a major burden on today’s society and is negatively affecting the behavior of the listeners. It does not have a positive message and it tells the listener that doing the wrong ok. It contradicts what the Bible says.
Hence, censorship is essential in society to eliminate discrimination on basis of race and gender, protect children, maintain stability and restore what censor sees as lost moral values. Censorship occurs when expressive materials like books, magazines, movies, videos, music or works of art are restricted to particular audiences based on their age or other characteristics. http://www.ala.org/oif/intellectualfreedeomandcensorship.html) Censorship is not a recent development. It wasn’t imposed properly or there weren’t strict regulations before.