2004-06-15
You said ****, I'm gonna tell!
This American Life, one of my favorite radio shows, based this weeks show on the FCC and the way they define what is "bad" and what isn't. This show, titled Propriety (RealAudio), covers the gamut of speech and when and when not acceptable.
A lot of the show is spent talking to children who overwhelmingly already know curse words despite the lack of them on public airwaves. The argument that the FCC presents is that it damages children by hearing these words. The thing that really gets me is that the current idea of "bad" is sex and functions of excrement. So the F-word is "bad" because obviously when someone here it they immediately think of sex and naked people. None of the children ever said anything about sex. They all viewed the F-bomb as adjective expressing a lot of emotion as was the case with Bono saying "F-ing brilliant!" I'm pretty sure he wasn't intending a sexual connotation.
Even if he was implying sex, is that bad? Really? That's one of the basic human things. People have sex... and they have bowel movements. Why is it "bad" to talk about these two most natural things?
I think there is a bunch of noise about "hurting the kids" when it's not the kids that are hurting. I know that my daughter has heard me swear. Tools dropped on body parts evoke lots of creative uses of the English language. She realises that these aren't appropriate words for her to say and she isn't embarassed by them, she just doesn't repeat them out of politeness to those around her.
In the end... a word is just a word. It's just some sounds the we squeeze out through our vocal cords that we attach some meaning to. If you don't think a word is bad, well, then it isn't. It's the connotation that is bad and nearly anyword can have a bad connotation.
You can offend anyone if you try hard enough.
Now c'mon, I know you have to have more love than that.
It is a _good_ thing to preserve the innocence of children. We are thier parents, and that is what we are supposed to do: provide them a safe environent to grow in. There are alot of good ways to grow, and learning how to express themselves poorly is not one of them. Teach them to express themselves eloquently.
You are a musician, right? Someone that farts into a microphone and rubs excrement on himself and the wall is not an artist, not a musician. There is nothing of value there. But if you can sit down and examine your feelings, and express them in a way that is cathartic to you and other people can understand and relate to, you have achieved the goal of art: to express and communicate ideas.
I'm not even touching the whole subject of avoiding sexual references with children in order to protect innocence. The purpose of raising them with quality should be reason enough.
- Justin's Conscience Ray Holmes
: 10:11 AM Links to this post:
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
