Although I'm not in the PC camp, there is something to be said about using the language elegantly and using it poorly.
I was rather disappointed that Madonna's books for children included the word 'fart'. It's a course, rough word; although not entirely wrong, I found it extremely unelegant for her to choose such a word in a series of books illustrated so elegantly.
I've discovered that there's an unofficial hierarchy for offensive words and kids 'graduate' from one level to the next. For instance if you're between the ages 3-5 'fart' is an offensive word. Then you hit the grand 7-10 bracket and 'fart' is considered vocabulary while 'ass' becomes the taboo word. And so forth. Strange isn't it?
On one hand, I think having palpitations over 'tame' offensive words like 'fart' will only spur children to keep using them. On the other, I agree with CatR that there's a time and place to use such words.
i grew up in a house that had swear words flying around, from left and right, and smack in between.
i didn't end up being foul-mouthed all the time. i AM foul-mouthed, but even at a young age, i knew when or where i should or shouldn't be using swear words.
if anyone can conclusively prove that children exposed to swearing at a young age will grow up to become monsters or ruffians or whatever, i will stop swearing for the rest of my life.
5 comments:
Although I'm not in the PC camp, there is something to be said about using the language elegantly and using it poorly.
I was rather disappointed that Madonna's books for children included the word 'fart'. It's a course, rough word; although not entirely wrong, I found it extremely unelegant for her to choose such a word in a series of books illustrated so elegantly.
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CatR.
coarse, not course. Urgh. Ignore the slip.
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CatR.
I've discovered that there's an unofficial hierarchy for offensive words and kids 'graduate' from one level to the next. For instance if you're between the ages 3-5 'fart' is an offensive word. Then you hit the grand 7-10 bracket and 'fart' is considered vocabulary while 'ass' becomes the taboo word. And so forth. Strange isn't it?
On one hand, I think having palpitations over 'tame' offensive words like 'fart' will only spur children to keep using them. On the other, I agree with CatR that there's a time and place to use such words.
i grew up in a house that had swear words flying around, from left and right, and smack in between.
i didn't end up being foul-mouthed all the time. i AM foul-mouthed, but even at a young age, i knew when or where i should or shouldn't be using swear words.
if anyone can conclusively prove that children exposed to swearing at a young age will grow up to become monsters or ruffians or whatever, i will stop swearing for the rest of my life.
you can't, cos i am living proof.
They're just words. I bet Hitler never swore much either.
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