Friday 2 October 2009

Swearing: round 2

I read this in the Daily Express today, from Ann Widdecombe:
[...] it is almost impossible to get through an evening's television viewing without hearing "strong" language on the screen. Strong, of course, is a euphemism for disgusting.
To that, I respond - fuck off!!!

Who's to say swearing is 'bad'? Why? 'Shit' is just a word like any other. Why is 'fuck' worse than 'fork'? They sound almost the same, so what's the problem?

I've made my standpoint on swearing on TV known before. If the occasion calls for it, I'm in favour. It can add realism to the situation. Widdecombe then went on to directly attack scriptwriters for the 'bad' language:
Perhaps the BBC should issue a swear box to all script writers so that they can ask them to put in 10% of their salery for each bad word used.
Again, I say FUCK OFF!!!

What responsibility do writers have to avoid such language? It is the responsibility of whoever decides the show be aired and at whatever time. If a show airing at 10pm features the word 'shit' then it is not the writer's fault if a child hears it.

Now if the word 'shit' appeared in a kids show airing at 3pm, then there is cause for alarm. But is it then the writer's fault? Any good production company would not take a script (for children) which featured that word. So would it be the writer's fault if it slipped through the net?

The truth is that no-one writing for 5-year-olds is going to put the word 'shit' in their dialogue. That would get them rejected. So what exists is a form of self-censorship on the part of writers. You choose language appropriate for the occasion.

'Fuck' would not be appropriate for a kids show, but would be perfectly justified in a show airing at 9pm when the characters are about to get hit by a car!

Someone I've admired for a long time has his own strong opinion on swearing. We all know him; we all love him!



What Fry says is true. I've come across tutors at school and university who swear their asses off. And they're extremely intelligent. I heard swearing at school, from my sister (she went to 'big school' and taught me all the words) and from my parents.

I watched 'The Terminator' at the age of 7 and sniggered at the use of the word 'fuck'. I thought it was a bad word. Why? Because I was told it was. Is it?

Fuck no!

But people will always complain. They always have and they always will:



And in regards to Ann Widdecombe, does she not strongly resemble Hugh Laurie's character above? A pathetic, old-fashioned woman with nothing better to do than complain about things. She often speaks about things she knows nothing about.

Not long ago she attacked teachers, claiming that their road to qualified teacher status was too easy. As the brother of a dedicated, hard working teacher, I know she's wrong. Not only do teachers work their asses off to become qualified, but they then go into a very competative occupation with very high demands. Getting to school for 7.45 and not leaving until after 6pm isn't what I would call an easy day.

Clearly Ann Widdecombe didn't have a clue what she was on about. It's the same here. Yes, everyone has the right to an opinion. But if you want to air it, get a blog to rant on! I just wish the Express would cease paying this creature to air her ignorant, pointless and all-round idiotic opinions.

As one of my facebook friends said:
For every breath that Ms Widdecombe draws in should be taxed as breath taken from us!
Hear-fucking-hear!

And to play us out, we have Metallica's cover of an Anti-Nowhere League song. Please do take offence :)




1 comment:

Lucy V said...

Yeah, agree but... I would never support taxing screenwriters for something I think so trivial, especially when they earn so little. But isn't this down to interpretation, at least in part?

Let's take your teacher comment. Anne Widdecome knows nothing, you say you *know* 'cos your brother works hard as a teacher.

I am a qualified teacher and actually, teacher training was a piece of PISS (arf) for me. It was waaaaaaaaaaaaay easy. I aced my assignments and my teaching practice and raised a child alone as a single Mum at the same time. In MY opinion and based on my experiences then and thereafter, PGCEs in particular are too easy and have opened the floodgates for loads of intelligent people to flood through into an already damaged education system who shouldn't actually be there; they just can't think of anything else to do. I'm not saying your brother is thick or shouldn't be a teacher btw, it's just there is always more than one way of looking at stuff.

Of course intelligent, educated people swear: I have a gob like a sewer if you met me in real life. I couldn't give a damn in TV or films how much swearing is going on (as long as it has some point).

But just because people do care, why does that have to make them uptight? Why can't it just make them different to you?