FRANKLY, MY DEAR …
THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS POLITICALLY INCORRECT AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE AND MAY OFFEND SOME READERS
When I was a young man, growing up in the South, if a man said “damn” or “hell” in front of ladies, he would immediately apologize and ask for their forgiveness. Obviously, times have changed.
For one thing “damn” does not have the power it once had when Rhett told Scarlett: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” And neither does “hell,” although sometimes people back then might simply say “H-E-Double Hockey Sticks” to make the point without actually saying the word. And putting “God” in front of the “Damn,” was not only impolite, but also sacrilegious.
Once a few years went by and society grew a little coarser with both men and women cussing all the time, “damn” and “hell” both lost the power they once had. Now, I finally think it’s clear that one other offensive word has joined damn and hell.
That word is “Fuck.” It has not only lost its power as a cuss word, but has now become nothing more than a filler word. It has joined words such as LIKE, YOU KNOW, UH, ER, I MEAN, and WHATEVER. When you don’t have your thoughts together and you’re trying to stall, you use these filler word.
“UH, YOU KNOW, I didn’t really ER actually FUCKING vote because I work up that morning – I MEAN what the FUCK, man – my head hurt and I’m thinking LIKE WHATEVER, so I UH had a beer and went back to bed.”
Fuck has also become a tantrum word, as in FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! that some people use whenever they feel extremely frustrated and they can think of no other way to express themselves.
“Fuck” for me is dead as a word, killed by overuse.
To paraphrase Rhett, frankly, my dear, I will miss it. Fuck was a word in the quiver of strong language to be used when the situation was dire. And when somebody used it, it would be like a bomb going off – a kind of dad-is-really-angry-now word.
We are now running out of good cuss words like that, and ain’t that an f***ing shame.
Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.