You kiss your mother with that mouth?!

Chicago Tribune You kiss your mother with that mouth?!:

STATE OF PROFANITY

You kiss your mother with that mouth?!







By Rex W. Huppke
a Tribune staff reporter
Published April 2, 2006


Americans believe the use of profanity is on the rise, that coarse language has become commonplace in public, and that people are generally more foul-mouthed than they were a couple of decades ago.

Those are the results of a new survey, one that found 74 percent of Americans frequently or occasionally hear people cursing in public.

The Associated Press-Ipsos profanity poll provides ammo for those who fear every dirty word we utter nudges us closer to Sodom and Gomorrah Part II.

"I think it has really contributed to a culture of disrespect," said Melissa Caldwell, senior director of programs for the Parents Television Council, a conservative group that objects to swearing on TV. "It's not simply harmless. I think it impoverishes our society."

As the curmudgeonly Col. Sherman T. Potter of the television show "M*A*S*H" once said: Mule muffins!

Profanity has been around a lot longer than the religious right, a lot longer than television, Hollywood, rap music and Howard Stern. It likely dates back to the first time a caveman dropped a boulder on his foot.

Of course it didn't take long, historically speaking, for people to get uptight about bad words. Even Shakespeare was knocked around a bit for profane language in his plays.

The reality is that every generation has its share of taboo words, but those words can slowly gain acceptance and lose their bawdy luster. There was a time when "punk" and "heck" were considered profane, but now we watch people getting "Punk'd" on MTV, and anyone who says "heck" sounds either quaint or Southern.

So, some experts posit, this perceived uptick in swearing is more likely just a shift in the way the current generation feels about "bad words."

"The truth is, language is constantly changing, and what's considered to be taboo is kind of a moving target," said Jason Riggle, an assistant professor in the University of Chicago's linguistics department. "It's not necessarily true that we're swearing more now. People were probably swearing just as much back then, just not using the same words we use today."

Aside from perhaps a career peanut vendor at Wrigley Field, it's unlikely anyone has heard as much profanity as Timothy Jay, a psychologist and author of "Cursing in America." He has spent the past 30 years studying foul language and has reached a conclusion that will make clean-talking folks cringe.

"I would call it an essential part of communication," Jay said from his office at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. "Swear words express our emotions in a more efficient way than any other language, and you really can't use substitute words. Other words don't mirror your emotion, and they're not satisfying."

Naturally, not everyone agrees.

"It's just lazy language," said Jim O'Connor, the Lake Forest-based author of "Cuss Control," a guide to breaking the bad-word habit. "Why bother? Nobody ever got in trouble by not swearing. You can say it doesn't do any harm, but it certainly doesn't do any good."

Still, many modern-day swearers ask where we, as a culture, would be without profanity.

Imagine in 1939, as Americans first took in the epic "Gone With the Wind," if Rhett Butler had locked his eyes on Scarlett O'Hara and snarled, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot."

Or if 40 years later, the band AC/DC had penned a hard-rock anthem called "Highway to Heck."

For most, it just wouldn't be the same, which is perhaps why ongoing attempts to purge profanity from our society seem destined to fail.

Jay, the cussing expert, puts it this way: "Restrictions against profanity are like restrictions against farting."

If you don't believe that, go drop a 16-pound sledgehammer on your toe and see if the first thing you holler is "Oh, rats!"