Language Less Polite!

In editing Tom Burstyn’s articles from the last two issues, an issue arose for me as editor that I had not really considered previously. A few times during our taped conversation, Tom used the well-known four-letter word beginning with ‘F’; and I realized that the one occasion in the past where we did use the word in this magazine when quoting someone’s thoughts (mine), we’d actually used the letter F, with asterisks substituting for the other three, a common practice in print media. However, fashions change over time; and certainly, there are plenty that do now print so-called four-letter words in full. On the one hand, my conservative upbringing leads me to prefer the euphemistic expression; but on the other hand, there seems to be a certain hypocrisy there - in that everyone reading the said euphemisms understands exactly what the asterisks are clearly meant to indicate!

However, what to do in the situation? In a couple of places I felt Tom’s use of the four-letter word was not absolutely necessary; but in other places, not only was it necessary but absolutely appropriate; and so on these occasions I chose to leave the four-letter word as spoken. I was curious to see whether that practice would elicit any reaction. The answer so far – none whatsoever.

Looking back over the use of language in various situations in our lives, especially in relation to work, fashions have indeed changed over time. When I was brought up in a small rural area in a very polite family, Sunday School being a regular event for me, the use of swear words was an absolute no-no in our house, and in school, to the extent that even uttering the word ‘hell’ was regarded as extremely risqué! When we moved to the city and I went to secondary school I discovered that many of the lads were much freer in the language than I was used to, but becoming a fundamentalist Christian for a few years or so meant that my language stayed what you might call pure, clean. University, however, was a different thing altogether - by that time I was dispensing with the fundamentalism and embracing a little more freedom of language. But it wasn’t until I joined professional theatre that I discovered what freedom in language really meant!

During the university summer holidays, it was common practice to take a job in a factory to earn funds towards one’s support for the following year. I remember a rather involved discussion amongst three of us students one summer about why the full-time laborers in the factory were so free with swearing, the F word in particular. It seemed that every second word spoken began with F and had four letters, and I remember one of us rather arrogantly postulating that perhaps it was not just a lack of education or imagination on their part, but that possibly people used four-letter words to fill the gaps when the words came out of their mouths faster than they were able to think.

Thank God moving into live theatre disabused me of at least that notion. It was there that I began to be truly free with my language, but again only in certain contexts. Within the theatre environment, it seemed natural, where actors (and also crew) worked very long hours, in an environment where people were using their innermost emotions as part of their work, thus tending to form very intense connections with each other. When I graduated from – if you can call it graduating from live theatre to film work – I discovered that on film sets language is almost as free and colorful as in the theatre!

All through the years in these various different environments, I have wondered about the use of four-letter words. Why it is that we often feel the need to use words with shock value; and what happens when that shock value fades through overuse? I’m reminded of a situation on a film crew a few years ago when piercings were actually still novel. A young female film student turned up on set for work experience wearing a t-shirt with no underwear and a large nipple ring proclaiming its presence. She explained that she wore both the ring and the thin t-shirt in that way deliberately, to shock. I thought, What happens after we’ve got used to it? Where do we go to further shock? Similarly with language...

The other question that has always struck me about the English language particularly – Why is it that our most abusive swear words relate to the one activity that almost the entire world agrees is probably the most pleasurable; and why is it that the most abusive terms we use to attack someone relate to genitalia? Is that true of all languages around the world, and, if so, why? I have smatterings of French, German, and Maori, but nowhere near enough to answer my question! But whether or not it is a phenomenon peculiar to English, how on earth has it come about – and why?

Tony F.