I have certainly come a long way since my mother hauled me over the coals for daring to utter the dread word "damn". I haven't reached the stage where I can bring myself to say the F word or to write it in what is after all a family blog. Incidentally, the word itself is available in a variety of iterations, as a noun, verb and adjective, but not at the time of writing as an adverb.
I am not sure what the BBC's policy is with respect to swearing in general and the F word in particular, but I note that in America it (the word) features prominently in TV series such as The Good Wife, Boss, Dexter and Homeland. In the case of Homeland I was distressed to hear the word employed in the upper echelons of government and even within the ranks of the CIA.
Does this mean that nowadays anything goes? Well, that's the funny thing. On American TV and increasingly in real life you can swear and kill people with gay or heterosexual abandon, but you had better not try to smoke a cigarette, although harder drugs are of course allowed. (The only way to get around the smoking ban is to act in a series set in the past, like Mad Men or The Hour.)Again, Dexter, which specialises in murders of a particularly gruesome kind and lingers lovingly on horribly mutilated bodies, is always at pains to hide the private parts of male victims. I mean, there ARE limits. It seems that taboos are always with us; they just change from age to age.
I am not sure what the BBC's policy is with respect to swearing in general and the F word in particular, but I note that in America it (the word) features prominently in TV series such as The Good Wife, Boss, Dexter and Homeland. In the case of Homeland I was distressed to hear the word employed in the upper echelons of government and even within the ranks of the CIA.
Does this mean that nowadays anything goes? Well, that's the funny thing. On American TV and increasingly in real life you can swear and kill people with gay or heterosexual abandon, but you had better not try to smoke a cigarette, although harder drugs are of course allowed. (The only way to get around the smoking ban is to act in a series set in the past, like Mad Men or The Hour.)Again, Dexter, which specialises in murders of a particularly gruesome kind and lingers lovingly on horribly mutilated bodies, is always at pains to hide the private parts of male victims. I mean, there ARE limits. It seems that taboos are always with us; they just change from age to age.
Tsk, some people have short memories. Convenient ones, at any rate.
ReplyDelete'twas you and Youngest Brother who taught me that'F' word. Also the 'B' one.
But to address your post with a degree of seriousness:
Yes, certainly most of these sort of words still get bleeped on television. Though when a direct quote they can be seen in the written meejah. Some words, though, are still totally beyond the pale. Possibly too strong just to put the opening initial on here!
I can only suppose you are referring to "fab" and "blast"?
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