Bad Words
George Carlin listed 7 dirty words people can't say on TV way back in 1972. The original Home Box Office (now known as HBO) special the same year had two warnings about how vulgar the special was. One at the beginning of the show and one right before he went into the 7 dirty words section of his stand up. He ended up getting arrested at one point for doing this standup. Why do people care so much about what artist say? Why do people consider certain words as bad? Why do people care what words we use? I don't get it, and here is why.
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While looking through some cd's at the store, I saw that many of them had a Parental Advisory label on them. Then there was some of the same album that didn't have these stickers on them. I got to wondering what the differences were between these two otherwise identical albums. I soon found out that the one without the label was edited to remove offensive language. I almost bought one by mistake. Oddly, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut and The Division Bell albums didn't have Parental Advisory labels. They were not edited either. Which also got me thinking. Why are some bands warned against and edited to the point of not being able to understand what they are saying, when other bands don't even get a warning label. Struck me as a double standard, and I hate double standards. One standard will do just fine, thank you.
I would rather take art as it was intended by the artist. Rather it be music, TV shows, movies, poems, standup, books, architecture, paintings, sculptures, or even graffiti. I would not repaint the Mona Lisa to make her smile fully. I would not put a light bulb over the Thinking-Man statue. I would not paint the Golden Gate Bridge gold. I wouldn't remove the string section from Beethoven's 5th Symphony either. None of these things are what the artist intended. So why would I want to change the lyrics of a song? That is not what the artist intended for the song to sound like. There are plenty of great songs that once you edit them for language you can't understand the meaning or even the emotion behind the song. Stop editing art, you are denying the artist's true voice.
In everyday speech we are taught from childhood that some words are bad. One of the big ones is the word Fuck. In the Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary it has this warning. "Fuck is an extremely offensive word in all of its uses and should be avoided." Yet, the first definition provided is "to have sex". Well, it seems that once again, making babies is deemed bad. I've always wondered why WTF (What The Fuck) and FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) is acceptable but the actual word Fuck it's self is taboo. What is really so wrong with going up to someone and saying, "I would like to fuck you". It's straight forward, to the point, and had no negative meaning that I can find. The term "making love" means essentially the same thing. Yet, no one finds that term offensive. You could walk up to someone and say, "I would like to make love to you" and no one would be offended. I guess people just want to beat around the bush when it comes to sex, because sex is dirty. The only response that I can give to people that find any words offensive is this. Oh, for fuck's sake! Get over yourselves! It's just a word. I mean if you really think about it. Telling someone to fuck off is kinda nice. To put it in a less offensive way is this. Go make love. What's so wrong with that? It's fun, a good workout, puts people in a good mood, increases emotional connections between people, and if caution is use no harmful side effects.
Some people claim that some words, that are not considered bad, are offensive. One of the dumbest examples of this is the word "moist". Granted, it's mainly females that get upset by this one. It seems to stem from the idea that having a moist vagina is a bad thing. I'm sorry, but if I'm making your vagina moist then I'm doing good. No one wants to play with a dry vagina. That can be painful for all people involved. Lots of things are better when moist. Cake, cake is a perfect example. Who in their right mind wants to eat a dry cake. I can find no reason why moist is so taboo all of a sudden. If the word moist bothers you, then you probably need to read my last post, and get over your self hatred.
Here in the US we have freedom of speech given to us, as a right, due to the first amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Therefore, I have the right to say anything I want to say. You have the right not to listen. You have the right to take offence. I have the right not to care about you being offended. The opposite is true as well. If you don't like the words that come out of my mouth or words that I type. I have have two words for you, fuck off. I might just be some guy called Rug sitting at a keyboard exercising my freedom of speech, but that is what I think.
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