Some of you, of a certain age, might remember the threat of getting your mouth washed out with soap. And some of you might remember actually getting your mouth washed out with soap. If so, you probably even remember the brand of soap. Maybe you had a favorite?
This had nothing to do with personal hygiene. It had everything to do with punishment… the penalty you had to pay for using any number of words forbidden in your home. There was no universal list of trigger words. Different parents had different standards. And of course, some had no standards at all.
Which brings us to where we are today. A few homes may still have a bar of Dial handy, but the expectations of how to behave when out in public have changed.
Trailblazers
The first crack in the wall appeared in the 1939 film, Gone With the Wind, when Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Fast forward to 1972 when George Carlin introduced his Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, which, you can be sure, did not include the word “damn.” There was never an actual official list. Apparently Carlin just picked the words he thought worked best for the joke.
Now, decades later, the list is obsolete anyway, with only a couple of the most egregious terms still frowned upon. The 1994 film Pulp Fiction gratuitously featured the f-word no fewer than 265 times. The entertainment industry has proceeded unchecked and unapologetic, agreeing only to a toothless ratings system which can’t prevent profanity, just grade its level of depravity.
Over the years, both the Federal Communications Commission and the Supreme Court have weighed in with rulings and recommendations regarding what’s permissible and what isn’t, but it looks like practice has prevailed over policy. The people are going to do what they want to do.
Like anything else you object to on the tube, you can always change the channel or just turn it off, but in terms of social influence, electronic media has dominated for decades. Media doesn’t reflect culture as much as it influences it. And with that, the acceptance of public profanity has become more the norm than the exception.
Coming Clean
Full disclosure… I’m no prude. At one time or another, I’ve used all of the seven words. But there’s a time and a place for everything. Missing a makeable putt with twelve skins on the line might lead to an understandable profane utterance. But getting behind an elderly lady in the checkout line, paying with all the change in her purse, does not justify the dropping of an audible f-bomb.
Setting a Bad Example
TV and movies aren’t the only social influences to blame for the creeping acceptance of public profanity. While we may have thought the highest rungs of government would set the standard for exemplary behavior, the release of the Nixon tapes in 1974 illustrated otherwise.
The phrase “expletive deleted” was introduced to the American public as a replacement for whatever inappropriate words were peppering the discourse in the Oval Office. So if the president, and all his men, can freely cuss in the workplace, why can’t I?
Freedom Of Speech?
With the exception of yelling “fire” in a theater, anytime words come out of your mouth, the First Amendment offers an element of protection. According to the website FindLaw, “Although it’s probably not a great idea to curse in public, most states won’t punish you for it unless it is followed by threats or fighting words.”
In short… it’s generally legal to curse in public. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Do-It-Yourself Censorship
Yes, we hear a lot of naughty words on TV these days, but we also see a lot of self-censorship, in the form of editing and beeping. When and why such censorship is applied and necessary is a gray area. And since there doesn’t seem to be any generally accepted formula for how to deal with ill-defined profanity, we’re led to a begrudging tolerance. The lowest common denominator prevails.
Some would argue, if you have a problem with profanity… that’s a you problem. And they would not be wrong. Our unwritten cultural mores are hard to pin down, leaving room to push the envelope. The Rice Paddy’s former owner Aoy proved that a few years ago.
Digital Profanity
The illustration at the top of this page is a good example of the kind of censorship we see when we struggle to identify what is and isn’t appropriate. In the photo, late night TV host Stephen Colbert is “giving the finger.” As we almost always see when someone is using such historically offensive sign language, the image is obscured by electronic blurring.
People who know about these things suggest the practice of “extending the middle finger to express displeasure or disdain” goes back to the BC years. There’s no official definition of the act, so we’ll call it “a profane declaration aimed at an offending party, incorporating one of those seven words.”
Well, someone somewhere agrees that the giving of the finger is indeed profane and needs to be blurred, meaning it’s comparable to the worst of the words. Whatever happened to just sticking out your tongue? Let’s bring that back.
What Should We Do?
Just like profanity, the more visual art of obscenity is also hard to identify. In 1964 Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart came up with a litmus test we can still use today when he said, “I know it when I see it.”
Here’s a test. If you wouldn’t say it in front of your grandma, don’t say it in public. It’s probably profane. Your grandma wouldn’t like that, and where do you think your mom got the idea for soaping your mouth?
Will we ever return to a more mannerly time when we can go to the store, or enjoy a picnic in the park, or catch a ball game, without being subjected to careless, cringeworthy profanity?
Not [expletive deleted] likely.