A very short dissertation into the realm of "choice" words
(my brain decided to actually turn itself on today and work- were it polished up and poked and prodded for proper structure and grammatical correctness, it wouldn't be all that shabby as a start to an acutal disartation which i'm sure has been done a hundred times over ;-)
This was mainly in response to a friend of mine having to contend with school disciplining her child for words that they have deemed as "bad" or offensive". It is actually quite relative, and it was pointed out that we Americans seem to be almost exclusive in singling out words to be labeled as harsh and at the very least never to be uttered in polite conversation.
Noam chomsky points out that no matter what the circumstances were that lead our species to become evolved,language was the most innate in us. Language is almost a living entity in our subconscious- a collective understanding with the sole purpose to communicate and further our species. He of course put it much less succinct but much more elegant and eloquent than I could ever manage. He has an understanding of language, communication, and people as a whole that i only marginally grasp.
I value words having a much visceral quality being able to bring out the full expression of emotion- but attaching a naughty label to them has made us a parity of ourselves using our very own language as the medium. Words are one of those funny things people get hung up on which I find deliciously ironic due to the fact that we need language to communicate and survive.
It all falls down to what someone decides to be offended at. The words queer and gay were originally meant to scandalize and insult but since the gay community adopted them as their own they loose much of the tabboo. If people stop being actually bothered by "choice" words they no longer keep their visceral quality. Ass seems to be one of those words now thrown into the every day lexicon.
This was mainly in response to a friend of mine having to contend with school disciplining her child for words that they have deemed as "bad" or offensive". It is actually quite relative, and it was pointed out that we Americans seem to be almost exclusive in singling out words to be labeled as harsh and at the very least never to be uttered in polite conversation.
Noam chomsky points out that no matter what the circumstances were that lead our species to become evolved,language was the most innate in us. Language is almost a living entity in our subconscious- a collective understanding with the sole purpose to communicate and further our species. He of course put it much less succinct but much more elegant and eloquent than I could ever manage. He has an understanding of language, communication, and people as a whole that i only marginally grasp.
I value words having a much visceral quality being able to bring out the full expression of emotion- but attaching a naughty label to them has made us a parity of ourselves using our very own language as the medium. Words are one of those funny things people get hung up on which I find deliciously ironic due to the fact that we need language to communicate and survive.
It all falls down to what someone decides to be offended at. The words queer and gay were originally meant to scandalize and insult but since the gay community adopted them as their own they loose much of the tabboo. If people stop being actually bothered by "choice" words they no longer keep their visceral quality. Ass seems to be one of those words now thrown into the every day lexicon.