Bombs Away!

“And in interviews and public comments, it is now the go-to word for female and male celebrities alike, lowering the glamour threshold to dirt level.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m growing weary of the foul, degrading pubic discourse that now comes at us from 360 degrees from every imaginable forum. Profanity-laden statements from politicians, authors, commentators, actors, and ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s have now overrun the boundaries of civilized discussion and communication, becoming a deadening and soulless shadow on the public body that darkens ideas, conversation, debate, love, humor, and purpose.

Even making this observation in the first place invites critics to suggest that the observer is a hypocrite, a goody two-shoes, pious, or posturing as a particularly virtuous person. The argument is, I suppose, that the unrestricted use of language and any expletive in any manner is a form of personal liberation of expression in the face of outdated orthodoxy, rather than an ironic act of conformity to the new normal it has become.   

What was often considered the most obscene and degrading word, the f-bomb, is now firmly in command of the public space. You can scarcely see a movie or a TV drama series outside of the major networks, that isn’t pockmarked like the surface of the moon with the word. The language often overshadows even the most well-written scripts, such as Yellowstone, Homeland, and Billions. Men, women, and children use it in virtually every scene. And in interviews and public comments, it is now the go-to word for female and male celebrities alike, lowering the glamour threshold to dirt level.   

The f-word is virtually inescapable in podcasts, comedy skits, and over-the-counter or lunch-table discussions. (It even makes its way onto bumper stickers!) It’s not just blue-collar workers; it’s everywhere, even in the corporate world, from the executive suites to the interns. It has inserted itself into dialogue as a descriptor attached to any and all words or activities. Considering its original meaning, it’s a preposterous and frivolous use, but no one seems to notice.

If you’re a reader, the f-word is now used gratuitously where it adds nothing to the narrative. Rather, it demotes the impact more often than not.

Even what is left of national publications and magazines, such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic, use the f-bomb in articles and essays as a matter of course. Essayists now consider its use to be the ultimate emphasis, punctuating some obvious point and identifying them as avant-garde wordsmiths rather than mere members of the herd they are.   

Fiction authors have now succumbed to culture, even some surprising writers who have held out for some time. The f-word is now a frequent hitchhiker in a narrative where it adds nothing to the trip. I’m certain that editors and publishers push it on authors as a tool to build reality or earthiness into a novel’s dialogue. Really? In this author’s opinion, it ends up robbing the books of the originality and craftsmanship any author wants, replacing a well-seasoned thought with the blandness that comes from indiscriminate vulgarity.

None of this should suggest that I’m a teetotaler regarding foul language. I’m neither a prude by nature nor rearing nor an innocent on the subject.

Decades ago, in my adolescence and teen years, my circle of friends and I indulged in juvenile bawdiness with great vigor. We all cursed like sailors. But the f-bomb was not one of those words. It was considered a word out of bounds for ordinary company, and you just didn’t hear it much anywhere, or at least where I hung out. I started working at fourteen and never heard the word in the various jobs I had through high school, nor was it used in the public culture at all.

And in front of girls, boys, not that long ago, most definitely watched their language, if not perfectly, they were certainly aware of it. In public places and school, my friends and I met the minimum standards of decorum. And if we didn’t, there always seemed to be a large adult to tell us to pipe down and watch our language. But those dams broke a long time ago.

There are various sources for the origin and use of the f-word, but none are particularly convincing. It seems likely that it has been around for centuries, perhaps longer, in various forms, but its widespread use is very unlikely. Its earliest English use suggests that its original meaning was specific – a rude way of identifying sexual intercourse (which renders its current use in front of every verb even more absurd). But even that isn’t a certainty. Who knows? And the truth is, we’ll probably never know its origin.  

Although post-1980s Western, Civil War, and World War movies now liberally spread the word in the dialogue, making it seem as though it was in widespread use, there appears to be little proof of that, while there is a lot of evidence for the more mundane vulgarities still used today. The movie makers and writers, though, feel it is essential to insert the word in their work, whether it was used in the era or not. One wonders why.

The word didn’t even turn up much in the diaries and journals of the military through WWII, suggesting it was probably less prevalent than one might suspect. I never heard my father, a decorated bomber pilot in the Pacific in WWII, who most certainly used some salty language, use the f-word. I have friends who served in Vietnam who remembered plenty of cussing, but even there, they recalled the f-word’s use was far less than now, and reserved for the ultimate explanation mark.  

Although some early writers (Mark Twain comes to mind) wrote privately using the f-word once or twice, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, written by D.H. Lawrence in 1928, broke into the public mind. It’s unambiguous sexual descriptions and use of the f-bomb caused the book to be censored or banned in many countries. It wasn’t until 1959 in the US, and 1960 in England, that the uncensored version was allowed to be sold.

I’m under no misapprehension that the rampaging use of vulgarity can be throttled down. As long as social media personalities, podcast giants, and movie makers make it seem normal and even expected, then we’ll get more, not less of it, especially the f-word. But it remains a degrading phenomenon that has crisscrossed the culture in a way that devalues our conversations, debates, and lessens our spiritual appreciation.