forbidden words essay
Are We Responsible To (say) Fuck?
Due to the more and more relaxed state of regulations on the use of “forbidden words” in the media, the individual responsibility of using curse words has increased. In this research I have found that the use of curse words has heightened some people’s sensitivity to these words. Children are the most affected and the parents are not far behind. The use of curse words in our media has changed our perspective; children and teens use them sometimes on the daily basis, but is this change a good thing? The common curse words, some starting with S’s and some with F’s, have been found in every aspect of your day. “A virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity…” Is how the beginning of “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore” by Natalie Angier explains todays society and our common use of foul language. Walking down the street someone drops their phone and an unsavory word slips out, this person is a teenager and you ask where do they learn these kinds of words? Is it the parenting that needs to be questioned or is the their peers and society surrounding them? Nowadays these forbidden words can even come out of the mouth of a 4 year old and put onto the Internet for others laughter but is this something that we should adore? Videos of children, usually under the age of 10, using profanity are found hilarious but instead of seeing these videos as humorous we need to start seeing them as a gate way.
In the media there is still a lot of monitoring on which person says what and if a certain swear word can be exchanged for another that is less provocative. Even around the world some officials of nations have called for some sort of order in the media. As of April of last year Russian President Vladimir Putin had such an opposition on these forbidden words he decided to sign a law that would give out fines to whatever media source that used foul language. But is that what our world is coming to, do we really want to have to follow in the steps of
Due to the more and more relaxed state of regulations on the use of “forbidden words” in the media, the individual responsibility of using curse words has increased. In this research I have found that the use of curse words has heightened some people’s sensitivity to these words. Children are the most affected and the parents are not far behind. The use of curse words in our media has changed our perspective; children and teens use them sometimes on the daily basis, but is this change a good thing? The common curse words, some starting with S’s and some with F’s, have been found in every aspect of your day. “A virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity…” Is how the beginning of “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore” by Natalie Angier explains todays society and our common use of foul language. Walking down the street someone drops their phone and an unsavory word slips out, this person is a teenager and you ask where do they learn these kinds of words? Is it the parenting that needs to be questioned or is the their peers and society surrounding them? Nowadays these forbidden words can even come out of the mouth of a 4 year old and put onto the Internet for others laughter but is this something that we should adore? Videos of children, usually under the age of 10, using profanity are found hilarious but instead of seeing these videos as humorous we need to start seeing them as a gate way.
In the media there is still a lot of monitoring on which person says what and if a certain swear word can be exchanged for another that is less provocative. Even around the world some officials of nations have called for some sort of order in the media. As of April of last year Russian President Vladimir Putin had such an opposition on these forbidden words he decided to sign a law that would give out fines to whatever media source that used foul language. But is that what our world is coming to, do we really want to have to follow in the steps of
Citations: Sheidlower, Jesse. "The Case for Profanity in Print." The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/the-case-for-profanity-in-print.html?_r=0>. Johnson, Chandra. "Kids and Swear Words: Can Profanity in Media Hurt?" Washington Times. The Washington Times, 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.