Fouled language: Experts speak out about the effects of profanity’s prevalence

Kirk Baird

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 | 8:33 a.m.

It's not accurate to say swearing is back; four-letter words never left our vocabulary.

It's not entirely true to say cursing has become cool. For many that's always been the case.

But it is correct to say it's more popular than ever.

In fact, in a 1999 poll conducted by ABC News, 48 percent of men and 37 percent of women said they recently cursed in public.

Kathi Horvath doesn't need a poll to tell her that. She hears profanity almost daily in shopping malls, restaurants and just about anywhere else the fortysomething mother of two goes.

"People don't even realize today they say (obscenities)," Horvath said. "It's part of their vocabulary. And if you say something (to the offending speaker), they tell you to go 'f' yourself.'"

In a classic case of art imitating life, TV is getting in on the act.

The watchdog group Parents Television Council said profanity on television increased more than 500 percent from 1989 to 1999.

And that was before the June 20 episode of the Comedy Central series "South Park," when the edgy animated show lit up television censors 162 times during the show's fifth-season premiere.

That's how many utterances of the "s" word one of the seven naughty words the Federal Communications Commission deemed never to be spoken on broadcast or cable TV, or radio went across airwaves and into America's living rooms.

This was not the first time the profanity was broadcast on TV, either network or cable. That milestone belongs to an episode of CBS's "Chicago Hope" when, early last season, one of the doctor characters spoke the phrase " ('s' word) happens" during the program.

Still, it's reasonably safe to say "South Park," while not the first to broadcast the expletive, set a record for frequency used that's not likely to be broken anytime soon.

Word up

Foul-mouthed cartoon characters spewing 162 expletives may seem pointless and vulgar to some, but Robert Thompson, founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at New York's Syracuse University, disagrees. "It's the most tasteless, brilliant linguistic experiment" in TV history, he said of the "South Park" episode. "It demystified the word. That's what the 'South Park' episode did."

The story itself was a parody of the "Chicago Hope" episode and the feared backlash from using obscenities on prime-time television.

"Everyone thought it would open the flood gate" to profanity on TV, Thompson said. "It didn't." In fact, other than the more grown-up original fare on pay-TV channels such as HBO and Showtime, the "s" word has not been heard on either network or cable TV.

Until "South Park," that is and even then there was a purpose behind the exorbitant use of the word. It posed the question, why is society so concerned with the arrangement of three consonants and a vowel?

"You realize we're making a big deal over an utterance that we've decided means something," Thompson said. "The words only have the power because we give it to them."

Comedian George Carlin, whose legendary routine about the "seven dirty words" not allowed on TV was the impetus behind the FCC mandate in 1973 (later upheld by the Supreme Court in 1978), shares a similar viewpoint.

In a recent interview with satirical website/newspaper the Onion, the comic said, "There's no foundation for this language being harmful in any way; it's just rude to some people, less rude to others."

To Alfonzo Surrett that's reason enough not to use it.

"You can go up to someone and say, 'That's a lovely outfit,' and make their day, or you can go up to someone and use a profanity and ruin their day," said Surrett, author of "What Did You Really Say?: Understanding the Destructive Effects of Profanity," (Shofar Publications International).

"Words inspire, they inform and they encourage, but they also injure, they inflame and they irritate," he said.

And they can also be an example of poor self-esteem, as was the case when Surrett encountered a teenage girl at an inner-city youth seminar several years ago.

Also a minister for a non- denomenational church in Illinois, the author told the audience he didn't appreciate the "b" word used in regard to women.

The teenage girl, who had one child with her who was sitting on the floor, one in her lap and was also pregnant, said she loved the "b" word, which was an accurate reflection of how women often act.

"It hit me how she felt about herself," Surrett said.

After counseling the teen he decided to write a book decrying the use of obscenities. He then researched the origins of profanities and what makes them so popular.

His conclusion is nothing new.

"We're all affected by peer pressure," he said. Which, literally translated, means swearing is popular because it's popular.

Monkey see ...

Brad Donohue, a UNLV psychology professor and clinical psychologist, calls it "modeling behavior," meaning we emulate what we see.

"People on TV are role models," Donohue said. "We try to be like they are. The more people are (swearing) on TV, the more potential for a child to see it and think it's cool."

The same applies to all facets of media -- film, music and literature -- and anyone who is high profile, such as an actor or athlete. Even friends and family can be an influence to be profane.

"Anyone who is meaningful to us," Donohue said.

Before you think about washing out someone's mouth with soap, he said, it's not just individuals who are to blame.

Everyone bears some responsibility for the trend to offend since society has become more accepting of profanity.

"People are more tolerant of things like swearing than when I was a kid," Donohue said. "Kids aren't aware of consequences for swearing."

But that doesn't mean "South Park" -- or any other program on television, for that matter -- is to blame, Thompson contends.

"Cursing and swearing were part of the American vocabulary for a long time," he said. "Hollywood didn't get around to (swearing) until the '60s, or television in the '70s."

Besides, TV is a cautious medium, he said. "TV never pushes the envelope, but licks it. Once it makes it to television, it's been around a while."

Thompson does agree, however, that profanity in the American lexicon is on the rise.

"When I grew up, 'crap' was a bad word," he said. "But teachers in classrooms are now using it. It's a generational thing."

The problem is, Thompson said, there is meaning in the four-letter words; the ability to reach out and express or summarize a person, mood or event in a quick, decisive manner. With these words becoming more commonplace, their bite -- the whole reason to use the words -- is weakened. Once that happens, it's difficult, if not impossible, to get it back.

"A sewer word is a non- renewable resource," he said. "You can't make new ones once you've worn them out ... It takes a long time for words to develop shock value. We may find once we've demystified these words, we may miss them."

Such is the case with "damn" and "hell," Thompson said, which were never mentioned on TV until "All in the Family" debuted in 1971. Now the words are a regular fixture on network television and deemed relatively harmless.

How much further can the networks go? He said he thinks all the way -- up to and including the previously unthinkable "f" word.

But don't expect to hear the granddaddy of all expletives on "South Park" anytime soon, Thompson said. Only after a generation has grown so accustomed to the "f" word that it no longer carries a negative connotation will it finally make its prime-time debut.

"But," he said, "its days are numbered."

In the case of the "s" word, 162 times to be exact.

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