Oh excuse me and pardon my French. Now thats a phrase you don’t here very often anymore. Probably because that in todays society, profanity is an expected part of life; so integrated into our culture that parents don’t even refrain from swearing in front of their own children. The billboard music charts have song that have lyrics that when translated into more “scientific” language sates “this feces is bananas. Artist like Eminem have song titles that I would not repeat in front of my little cousins. And thus my thesis: Profanity is taking over America. So let’s analyze what profanity is, who uses it and why, and the effects of such profanity.
First let’s define what profanity is. According to Websters Unabridged Dictionary, profanity simply put is something that is profane. Well thank you Captain Obvious. So lets exstrapulate from Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography, I can’t define it but i know it when i hear it.
Now that we’re clear lets talk about who uses profanity in our American society. Teenagers are the biggest culprits with an outrageous 87% of all teenagers using profanity on a day-to-day basis. However teenagers are not the only ones, adults are guilty also. The largest groups of these adults are the “entertainers” and, the not so entertaining, politicians. Why do they use profanity? For teenagers, according to psychologists like Dr. Francis Compton, a lecturer that has spent 30 years studying adolescent behavior, profanity is used as a way to feel mature. But it is mainly used because there is no reason not to and it gets our point across.
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Like when i yell SEXUAL INTERCOURSE you can tell that i am upset. Entertainers use it to sell themselves as “cool and hip” They also use it because profanity gets more of reaction out of people. For instance, Eminem has had numerous lawsuits against him for his crude lyrics. Nobody knows why politician use it but then again who does know what politicians are thinking anyways. Please tell me what kind of world we live in when the Vice President can be seen swearing at a colleague on the Senate floor. And why is it considered acceptable for sports players to use profanity constantly on the playing field?
Now before I go on I have something to confess. I am a part of the 87%. Yes, I admit it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t see how it effects our society socially and economically. Which leads me to my third point, the effects profanity has on everyone’s life.
Socially, profanity effects relationships. Profanity makes it harder for couple to communicate because of their arguments ending up as name-calling matches with extremely hurtful profanity being used. That same principle of communication seems to hold true for parent-child relationships. Children tend to call their parents “female dogs” and “fatherless persons” when the are angry, rather than trying to work things out. Parents,who often hear this muttering of profanity and get angrier, harsher and almost never try to figure out why their child is using such language.
Why are they using such language? Is it a result of an inherent esteem issue? According to the NASE, an organization devoted to self-esteem issues, over half of all teenagers in America have low self-esteem issues. Maybe the garage coming out of their mouths is because they feel like garbage inside.
Those problems may not have any bearing in your life but profanity still effects you economically. Don’t believe me? How much money do you dish out to get the uncut version of a CD or DVD? At a local Media Play the difference was on average $1.50. You see it effects you a lot as a consumer. It also effects business owners. Timothy DeBlauw owner of a coffee house, in an article for Tide Water Parents published in February 2005, stated that the use of profanity in his shop has caused a decrease in profits. Parents of little children don’t want them exposed to such foul language.
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Parents are an integral part of any child’s life. They are his safe haven, his stepping stones and his personal cheerleaders. They are the people who create a person in the first place hence he/she owes their existence to them (Laura, 11). They give a child his name, his characteristics and his personality. They also give him both his negative and positive traits. So, in my opinion it is a ...
Now that we know who uses profanity, why they use it and the effects on society, lets see what has been done and what we can do to stop the use of profanity. Currently at events like the World Series of Poker the use of profanity can get you suspended, according to the Post Standard. The article goes on to state that movie houses are declining to show movies with to much vulgarity. For example, AMC Entertainment declined to book the film “The Aristocrats”, which is the same blue joke being told by dozens of comedians., keeping the movie from 3500 screens. But taking money from the extremely rich will not help stop such language in the lower classes. That’s were we come into play. Because we are such eloquent OO’ers we should know the importance of language, and we can make a difference. We can change our friends and community. We must decide to go against the norm and hold our tongues when profanity is about to slip from it. We must decide not to teach the little children by using it in front of them.
In the words of Jay Alexander, Profanity is the crutch of a conversational cripple. We don’t want cripple another generation. Here is the challenge. I challenge you to go a whole week without using profanity. I challenge you to correct your friends, schoolmates, and family when they use profanity. To build and nurture the beauty within so there is no need to spew garbage. Finally, I challenge you to make a difference for everyone’s sake. And next time that you need to Pardon your French make sure its because vous parlez francais.
http://www.tidewaterparent.com/0502/teens.html
