Crap Boobs Crap....Hell Damn Fart

One of my favourite things that they do over at the AVClub.com (I am constantly astounded about how many people don't go to that site everyday. I have long ago forgotten that the regular Onion exists, except when Jon Burmeister sends me links to 3 year old Onion articles) is the Crosstalk feature, where two of their head writers engage in a really deep and thorough discussion on an interesting subject. The one they posted today is on the role of the MPAA, and whether its standards in determining whether a movie is R or NC17. This isn't the part that I'm particularly interested in - although I disagree with Noel Murray's devil's advocate position (albeit an interesting one) that the MPAA is actually the best possible system despite its Christian Conservative slant (aka, homophobic, and hypocritically fine with extreme violence while blanching at healthy depictions of sexuality).

The remark that seemed interesting to me was when Noel defended the attempt to prevent children from hearing swearing. He admits that kids are going to hear swearing at an early age anyways; but his position is that we need swear words to have a greater impact, and the only way they can have any meaning as swear words is if there is an attempt at a taboo in place to give them that added perk. In essence, he is employing Foucaultian logic here - that the strength of something rises in response to the organized taboo against it - and saying that is good to allow the words "fuck" and "shit" to keep their vitality.


I have always thought that if I were to have a child (however unlikely that may be), I wouldn't try and restrict it from learning swear words. If my hypothetical child asked me "what does fuck mean, I heard it somewhere" I would likely respond "it is something some people say when they are extremely frustrated or angry...don't say it in public or at school or you'll get in trouble because many people find the word offensive or disgusting to hear." Of course, then I would be guilty of treating my child as if it were an adult, and while part of me thinks that is the healthiest way to raise a kid, I am not totally certain.

But even if that is a healthy way to raise a child - not struggling with taboos, and thus developing a more genuine relationship to words unaffected by arbitrary restrictions - would that lead to a world in which swear words no longer have any meaning? Or more artistic and creative means to add emphasis and flavour into words?