When my oldest daughter, who shall remain nameless, was about 13 years old, she became irritated with her siblings for a) eating all the ice cream, b) coming into her room, c) looking at her wrong, or d) possibly just being born. I am sure it was a valid reason, and once again I am trivializing her feelings. And, that is all beside the point. In order for her to express how truly mad she was, she chose the biggest, toughest word she had ever heard to convey her feelings. That’s right, she used the F word. I don’t believe that word had been spoken before in our home, but I am sure she heard it several times a day just walking down the halls of her school. I was beside myself that a child of mine would dare use that word and probably yelled something not so nice back at her. My husband, on the other hand, sat her down and explained just what that word actually meant and asked her if that was truly the thing she wanted to express to her siblings. Long story short, that was the end of the use of that word at our house.
I believe Cameron Diaz has yet to have this conversation with her father. How do I know? Well, because, as you know, a PG-13 movie is allowed to have that word uttered once during the course of the show, and I believe Cameron Diaz possibly has it in her contract that if someone is going to use that word, then she is the one who gets to say it. Two movies to prove my theory are Knight and Day and My Sister’s Keeper. I am hoping that she soon finds a better way to express her anger because that word just ruins a movie for me.
Now this next part of my post may seem fabricated, but it is totally true. I like to read – okay, that is not the possible fabricated part – and the last three books that I have started reading have had the F word in them. Two of the three at least had the courtesy of including it in the first chapter before I would become engrossed in the story. Mothers and Other Liars was getting high ratings on the reader’s choice list at my local library, The Saving Graces was recommended to me by Goodreads because of a similar book I enjoyed, and the other book with something about a curious dog in the title was from a friend’s book club list and was even in the young adult section. My question is why? I just want to read books free of vulgarities and smut. After all, I am avoiding the romance section of my library.
Maybe I am just hyper sensitive because when the recent rage was to say “freakin”, I outlawed that word at my house too. I even hate Celo Green’s Forget You song because I know what he sings in the other version. No matter how mad I was at someone, I wouldn’t use that word. I don’t like the feeling or imagery associated with it. I think it is just time to bring back the good old bar of soap, maybe then the world would stop using it, and see it as the dirty word it is.
2 comments:
In my defense Dallan did some pretty mean things to me :) Cutting up my stuffed dolpin and eating all the ice cream on purpose just to make me mad :)
Thanks for this post Alison. I read it and then was commenting to a friend how I am more likely to get mad about in then sit down and talk to them about it. Lucky for me two days after reading this my oldest came home from school and said, "Mom you are being a "b" word." He did only say B, but still. I kept my cool and talked to him about the "real" word and why it was not good. We also talked about other words that people use instead of the real word, to make it sound better. Dad also talked to him about it and so far no more problems. He is only 10 so we will see if it sticks. Glad I can learn from an expert!!! :)
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