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“When I use a
word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone. “It means just what I
choose it to mean - neither more nor less.”
“The question
is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question
is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master - that’s all.”
-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking
Glass
Does Your Mother Know You Talk That Way?
Thoughts on Beauty, Gwen Stefani, and the Next
Acceptable Curse Word
By Kent d Curry
August 1, 2005
To anyone under 35,
they aren’t even curse words. When things go bad, it’s commonplace to hear,
“That sucks” or “I’ve been screwed.” Good Apostolic twentysomethings are as
likely to say these phrases as not. Yet to everyone over 35 they’re just one
half-step below unspeakable four-letter curse words.
When confronted, the Christian
twentysomethings insist that suck and screw may have started filthy, but time
has reshaped their meanings. Paul’s words to put away “anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and foul talk from your mouth” (Colossians 3:8), and to make sure
“there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting;
but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:2-4) just don’t apply to
these words/phrases anymore.
Of course, the
meanings of many words transform over time. English is the most fluid language
ever created. (Winston Churchill called the
communications between the U.S. and Britain, “Two peoples separated by a common
language.”) Three recent examples:
·
“Gay” has veered from “happy” to “homosexual;”
·
“Swear” started as a word for a binding covenant,
became a synonym for cursing, and now has almost disappeared from conversation;
·
“Cool” has remained “cool,” yet there have
simultaneously been innumerable “in the moment” cooler words for cool for at
least four decades, from “groovy” to “phat” to “tight.”
So it makes sense
that these half-step words have also changed meanings:
·
It’s easy to see that “screw” went from a
description of an honest implement with a strong visual metaphor to another word
for the F-bomb to frustrated complaints (“They’re putting the screws to me”) to
its current usage.
·
Suck’s etymology is a bit harder to trace from
honest origins. It seems just to have swung from its offensive sexual
connotation to meaning something is horribly wrong.
These reconfigurations happen
all the time. Here’s what’s happening now—language is no longer satiated by the
half-step below cussing. A curse word is joining the family of everyday words.
In A Teen Flick Near You…
It received mainstream exposure
at least as early as the 2000 teen flick Bring it
On. In one scene
cheerleading captain Kirsten Dunst tries to talk the talented new girl into
joining the squad by telling her how great it is. “We’re the sh*t, Missy,” she
declared. Of course, that isn’t what that curse word means. Dunst wasn’t saying,
“We’re the poop, Missy,” but “We’re the best,” “We’re it,” “We’re the center of
the universe” in a fresh way.
This redefined version of poop has been popping up in lyrics in
CDs released over at least the last year, but it’s been in high academic
circulation since at least 1994, when Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation
of Dante’s The Inferno, literature’s highest poetic creation, surprised
me by using sh*t in its correct context. (Flatterers were punished by being
submerged in a lake of it.)
You can almost see how it has transitioned—the word poop is
considered too tame and is replaced with sh*t in its “proper” context before
being redefined into something completely different.
Add to that its sometimes replacement for “kidding” (as in,
“You’re pooping me!”) and its willingness to be a synonym for trouble, and you
are on the edge of mega-wording, branching out from a set meaning into a
catchphrase cliché for almost anything.
Gwen Stefani may have just thrust it into our daily lexicon.
On The Airwaves
Near You…
In May and June, 2005 Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” dominated
broadcast radio. As her third hit single from 2004’s multi-platinum
Love.Angel.Music.Baby, it is a masterful pop/dance combo full of hooky tunes
and easy lyrics. It is still a top download on the web—Number 15 on iTunes and
Number 4 (album version) and 36 (clean version) on MSN Music. It has been
nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, Best
Female Video, and Best Pop Video.
Simply put, “Hollaback Girl” is the most danceable song you’ll
ever hear celebrating “sh*t” in multiple definitions. The song’s catchiest
lyrics are the chorus of “Ooooh ooh—it’s my sh*t, it’s my sh*t” and the
repeated refrain, “This sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.”
Basically what she’s repeatedly singing is, “Sh*t doesn’t just
mean poop, it means trouble and stuff and whatever else I want it to mean.”
This blatant redefining coincides with current dorm language in
American universities. Sh*t is the hot word to use about anything
positive; your girlfriend, that frat party, a movie, or your GPA, all of them
can be “the sh*t.” What they aren’t is poop.
The best part of the “Hollaback
Girl” problem is the broadcast radio version removed the curse word while
continuing the background music. Many more people will hear this sanitized
version than will ever hear the CD version. The worst part is the CD still
floats high on Billboard’s Top Albums chart (it’s been listed for 35
weeks and is currently number 14.) and the most popular downloads are the CD—not
the radio—version.
It doesn’t take a genius to forecast sh*t becoming the next suck
and screw, verbal filth that enters the vernacular as acceptable.
So here’s the problem for today’s Apostolic twentysomethings: If,
in the next few years, sh*t no longer means poop, but any number of other,
non-cursing definitions, you may not include it in your conversation but what if
the kids entering your Youth Group tell you that sh*t is no longer a curse
word—what will you tell them? (After all, their justification would be exactly
what is now used for suck and screw.)
Foreseeing this
shift is the first defense against acceptance.
Sharing the
Sacred
There are always consequences when words transmogrify. Words are not idle—all
contain power. They structure our thoughts, which in turn form our spiritual and
mental existence. Any time a word loses its value (by no longer clearly defining
something), it is either rubbish or worthless. When “awesome” means anything
positive (your shoes, a witty comeback, your God), then it’s hardly a
compliment, and it certainly doesn’t mean “inspiring awe.” (Plus, its knee-jerk
overuse underscores our society’s impoverished common vocabulary.)
This matters
because the most effective method of portraying and relating our God to others
is through words. In this sense, words are tools that build a bridge between
heaven and Earth. Every time we devalue one, or allow a vulgar term to
predominate, these tools are dulled or discarded, weakening the bridge. And in a
language that has more negative words than positive, we need access to every one
available. Yet there are still enough at our disposal to reach non-believers and
disciple believers.
Our biggest mistake
is thinking we must be influential in pop culture today before we can
change or redirect its trends. In this case, Gwen Stefani is not the enemy. She
merely represents the latest point on a continuing timeline in the redefining of
a curse word.
If university dorms
weren’t saturated in this word’s frothy hyperuse, her song would be another
empty pop moment (and it might still be). That means a bunch of crude 19
year-olds help dictate mainstream society’s word choices. If so, then a team of
determined Christians can counterattack just by using healthier terminology when
we talk to our friends; for condemning its acceptance and keeping it scrubbed
from our speech is an inadequate strategy.
It might be easier
to repel the obscenities than it appears.
Surfing the
Beauty Wave
Many commentators
have noted the bubbling resurgence in our culture toward beauty. After modern
art destroyed the concept for most of the 20th Century, the
appreciation of the transcendent, the superior, and the lovely is returning.
That’s great news for us because God is beauty. Many a sinner has come to
acknowledge God after extended interaction with beauty (art, literature, music,
a sunset, mountains) revealed significance beyond this present existence.
There are clear
differences between coarse and beautiful language; beauty lends itself to
sharing a real God beyond this Earth, but words that have numerous, crazily
different definitions do not. Every time one word can mean six different
things, we lose five tools to describe His majesty. While coarse
certainly coincides with our current casual society (and its immature desire to
shock for the sake of shocking), it’s also a society with a yearning, yawning
hole within it. This physical world does not satisfy.
The solution is
simpler than we realize—we must feed their spiritual cravings with verbiage that
is not Shakespearean but the beautiful tools of biblical language. When biblical
words and concepts dominate our thoughts they will also govern our vocabulary
and direct our actions. While contemporary discourse is heavily anchored to the
corporeal plane, we are freed to share the concepts of humility and
self-sacrifice, submission, kindness, and forgiveness—because each one points
somewhere greater. Grace, hope, and courage do the same. Also moderation, joy,
and redemption. Actually, the list is almost limitless; all are tools that build
a bridge off this planet.
Don’t be
confused—this isn’t a battle cry for everyone to chatter rabid zealotry, but
rather determined Christianity. After all:
·
Are you lucky or are you blessed? (One word points
to chance while the other points to God.)
·
Do you offer to pray for that sick coworker or just
tell her you hope she feels better?
·
When praised do you glow and agree, thank the
praisers, or reflect that praise toward Him?
·
Does your money management reflect earthly spending
or heavenly investment?
·
Do non-Christians understand the definition of
“joy” just by observing your life?
·
When a coworker points out your mistake to the
boss, do you offer forgiveness or revenge? What do you do when your co-worker
makes the same mistake?
·
Does your life better reflect American
individualism or Christian submission (to pastor, husband/father, boss, and
God)?
This counter
measure may sound trivial and implausible, yet “Hollaback Girl” may be a
tipping point because of the incremental shifts (dorm language, lesser
movies, and secondary songs) that created the critical mass sh*t has now
achieved. Other, more powerful expressions can be inserted into the public forum
that radiate hope and agape. Why not personally create incremental shifts in the
other direction? Adopting the key words of Christ into our daily conversations
will emphasize a greater, truer beauty not here attainable.
It was a trivial
man in the eyes of His contemporaries that rearranged history with His words and
actions. Why can’t we do the same in His name?
ninetyandnine.com
© 2005, Kent d Curry
---------
Kent d Curry
is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com.
Finalized while
listening to Jeremy Camp’s Carried Me: The Worship Project.
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