Dropping the F-bomb

This week Spotlight publishes "Taboo", a booklet by DAGMAR TAYLOR on the graphic and explicit language that parents and teachers generally are very careful to avoid and forbid. But here we are, presenting you with words you've been told not to use. Why?

For one thing, there they are, like forces of nature, like sex, death, thrills and embarassment. In certain surroundings, among friends, taboo language is not only acceptable, it creates a bond. The F-word is a case in point. Pupils on exchange programmes come back saying "Almost everyone uses it." Perhaps, but not everywhere and with everyone. Saying "fuck" in polite company is absolutely taboo, and it can develop the power of the H-bomb, causing severe fallout. Vice-President Dick Cheney dropped the F-bomb once in the US Senate, where he told Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont to "go fuck yourself". "I think he was just having a bad day," said Leahy, "and I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor."  Seeing it in writing is particularly shocking, so the media censors the word, in Britain by adding an asterisk for every letter, and in the US by adding a dash to avoid printing the word out in full. On the radio and on TV it is one of the words that are bleeped out. So there was a huge scandal recently, when a sports broadcaster dropped the F-bomb on the air no less than twelve times during a violent argument with the host of a morning show. He didn't realize that the microphone was picking up his tirade during a commercial break. As a result of the scandal, he may lose his job.

Anne Hodgson