That a book entitled “Puta” has been deleted from the writers’ website, Authonomy should surprise only those who still wonder at the ability of some people to become offended by stuff. However, anyone who is familiar with the power of offendees to impose their beliefs on others, are unlikely to be shocked. I had heard the term before and, in context, I believed that it meant “whore” in Spanish. However, I now understand that it is a “Swiss Army Knife” of a word, which can be used in many, many contexts but always to annoy, outrage or, indeed, offend.
Exactly what the complainant found offensive in the word, I have no idea but clearly there must have been something, mustn’t there? Or maybe not. Some people really enjoy being offended.
How can a word be “offensive”? Now, I can perfectly understand why a group of words, assembled in a particular order might offend someone but I cannot understand why certain people find certain individual words offensive.
Take Anglo-Saxon, for instance. When the Normans conquered England in the 11th century, French – a Romance or Latinate language - became the language of power and native tongue came was used only by those subject to the Norman overlords. Thus, many perfectly serviceable Anglo-Saxon words came to be seen as rather lower class. Hence, the Latinate translations of many words became “acceptable” for daily use, whilst the Anglo-Saxon words fell out of favour to the point where their use in English today is often confined to terms of abuse.
Yet even so, many are unable to countenance even the Latinate names for bodily functions and the bits that are employed theretofore. Words like fornication; defaecation; urination; masturbation; vagina; penis and anus can offend and so we are obliged to seek euphemisms. Pick your own. Some families even have words that are uniquely their own for these things.
Imagine if a child in primary school told the teacher that he needed to take a shit. After a sharp intake of breath and even a slight squeak of horror, the teacher would explain that, “We don’t use that word.” And when the child said, “Alright, then; I need a crap,’ would whisk him from the room and, in the corridor, exhort him to say “poo” or something “less offensive”.
‘What in the name of boiling hell makes “poo” less offensive than “shit”?’ I hope he would say. But, no. He would most likely say, ‘Yes, miss. Sorry miss’. He would then trot off to do his “Number twos” revelling i that some words have a SECRET POWER.
When, in 1965, theatre critic Ken Tynan said, “fuck” on the BBC, it was headline news and in the days before Channel 4 (a UK terrestrial T.V. channel) films on T.V. would have “offensive” words bleeped out. (A much more entertaining development was the use of “substitute” words overdubbed. Among my favourites were “Motherlover” and “Don’t fun with me!”)
Mind you, I am heartily sick of all the swearing on T.V. and in films although it’s not the words themselves I find offensive, it’s their use by mediocre and unimaginative writers to inject edgy realism into feeble dialogue that offend me. “Gritty” dramas are full of “strong language” and much of it not that “strong” – just plentiful. As the BBC might say “...other adjectives are available.”
So my recommendation is that if you don’t want to be offended by words – as opposed to the ideas that they convey – use them as freely as possible and, like an i-pad battery, they’ll be drained of power in no time at all.
Exactly what the complainant found offensive in the word, I have no idea but clearly there must have been something, mustn’t there? Or maybe not. Some people really enjoy being offended.
How can a word be “offensive”? Now, I can perfectly understand why a group of words, assembled in a particular order might offend someone but I cannot understand why certain people find certain individual words offensive.
Take Anglo-Saxon, for instance. When the Normans conquered England in the 11th century, French – a Romance or Latinate language - became the language of power and native tongue came was used only by those subject to the Norman overlords. Thus, many perfectly serviceable Anglo-Saxon words came to be seen as rather lower class. Hence, the Latinate translations of many words became “acceptable” for daily use, whilst the Anglo-Saxon words fell out of favour to the point where their use in English today is often confined to terms of abuse.
Yet even so, many are unable to countenance even the Latinate names for bodily functions and the bits that are employed theretofore. Words like fornication; defaecation; urination; masturbation; vagina; penis and anus can offend and so we are obliged to seek euphemisms. Pick your own. Some families even have words that are uniquely their own for these things.
Imagine if a child in primary school told the teacher that he needed to take a shit. After a sharp intake of breath and even a slight squeak of horror, the teacher would explain that, “We don’t use that word.” And when the child said, “Alright, then; I need a crap,’ would whisk him from the room and, in the corridor, exhort him to say “poo” or something “less offensive”.
‘What in the name of boiling hell makes “poo” less offensive than “shit”?’ I hope he would say. But, no. He would most likely say, ‘Yes, miss. Sorry miss’. He would then trot off to do his “Number twos” revelling i that some words have a SECRET POWER.
When, in 1965, theatre critic Ken Tynan said, “fuck” on the BBC, it was headline news and in the days before Channel 4 (a UK terrestrial T.V. channel) films on T.V. would have “offensive” words bleeped out. (A much more entertaining development was the use of “substitute” words overdubbed. Among my favourites were “Motherlover” and “Don’t fun with me!”)
Mind you, I am heartily sick of all the swearing on T.V. and in films although it’s not the words themselves I find offensive, it’s their use by mediocre and unimaginative writers to inject edgy realism into feeble dialogue that offend me. “Gritty” dramas are full of “strong language” and much of it not that “strong” – just plentiful. As the BBC might say “...other adjectives are available.”
So my recommendation is that if you don’t want to be offended by words – as opposed to the ideas that they convey – use them as freely as possible and, like an i-pad battery, they’ll be drained of power in no time at all.
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