Skaters and Profanity

[CoyoteChris]

I might just be too old for this society which we live in, but a couple of years ago I noticed my younger California friends were using more and more F bombs.
Now I am seeing more and more skaters, mostly from California, using profanity in social media. And its not that they are talking about topics that are very emotional, either, like child trafficking.
Maybe this is just the way society is going and I shouldnt let all the body rings, tattoos, and profanity bother me. But it does. Its cultural, of course. I was raised in one culture and today's kids were raised
in another. I try and be tolerant but its not working....I guess I just walk away....

 

[merrywidow]

Chris, I'm in my 80's but I've remembered all my life what an 8th grade teacher told us. She said that people who use foul language constantly are people who are too lazy or too ignorant to build a decent vocabulary. I don't care what your age is or your culture, it's how I judge young & old.

 

[karne]

Chris, I'm in my 80's but I've remembered all my life what an 8th grade teacher told us. She said that people who use foul language constantly are people who are too lazy or too ignorant to build a decent vocabulary.

That's garbage and not at all correct. I have a very large vocabulary. I can also swear the air blue when frustrated. It's some puritan nonsense.

I remember reading an interview with Brendan where they asked him about culture shocks moving from Australia to the US. He told a story about how his first session on the ice in the US (with no small children around I might note) he tripped and fell, and like any young Aussie lad, exclaimed "Awww *******!" - and promptly got the evil eye from every person in the building. He said cutting out swearing was a big adjustment.

Something that amuses me endlessly about America: guns, shooting people, driving people bankrupt because they're sick, paying waiters $5/hr - A-OK! Swearing, a woman showing a bit of skin - OH NO SKANDAL!

 

[TallyT]

Chris, I'm in my 80's but I've remembered all my life what an 8th grade teacher told us. She said that people who use foul language constantly are people who are too lazy or too ignorant to build a decent vocabulary. I don't care what your age is or your culture, it's how I judge young & old.

As someone who's not that young, and doesn't use much herself, and a lexiconophiliac to boot... she was wrong. Several of the most highly literate people I know, both in real life and as public figures, use a fair amount of it (though creatively). It's simply IMO that the words that shock and offend are again shifting, as we are being always left behind.

Religious profanity (which never really went away, just got euphemised) having lost its power, now the sex/bodily function ones are losing the first place in shock/offense to slurs that were, if not polite, more common (even among people who would NEVER swear) a couple of generations ago, the ones based on race/gender/disability etc. They are not profanity per se but it's a swings and roundabouts thing, and they are way more unacceptable than plain swearing. I've no doubt that it will change again, and something else will be seen as fouler.

Of course I grew up with the Great Australian Adjective, so maybe see swearing in a different light (and have long been amused by the studies that prove that, when in pain? - a string of wholehearted and strong obscenity can and does actually mitigate the pain a bit...)

 

[el henry]

The question is not a well placed profanity where it is appropriate. Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles gave an epic speech at the Super Bowl parade where he dropped the F bomb on numerous occasions, ending with the immortal line “you know what I have to say to all the people who doubted us, to all those who we said we couldn’t get it done, to all those who counted us out, what my man [teammate] Jay Ajayi just said: **** you.”

That is appropriate use of profanity in sporting context, and the speech in total was hilarious.

But I have noticed younger Twitterers (not my skating tweeps) using profanity where it makes no sense to me. “A TV show in incredibly s*****y” well that says nothing and means nothing how can you get so worked up over a tv show, and aren’t there other adjectives to express your sentiments? “**** this make up jar it’s the wrong color.” I mean, really? And this isn’t just one or two, it’s every day.

Believe it or not, I remember the dark ages when I was a teen and I decided I could curse. Man, did I feel grown-up and everything was bleep this and that. But, with apologies to my 15 year old friends with better vocabularies, these Twitterers aren’t 15. Even if they write like they are.

I don’t get it.

 

[TallyT]

The question is not a well placed profanity where it is appropriate. Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles gave an epic speech at the Super Bowl parade where he dropped the F bomb on numerous occasions, ending with the immortal line “you know what I have to say to all the people who doubted us, to all those who we said we couldn’t get it done, to all those who counted us out, what my man [teammate] Jay Ajayi just said: **** you.”

That is appropriate use of profanity in sporting context, and the speech in total was hilarious.

The opening minutes of the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral is another hysterical instance, as is the writer Richard Curtis's piece on how the international airlines (very conservative, but it was a huge hit) tried to deal with it)

But I have noticed younger Twitterers (not my skating tweeps) using profanity where it makes no sense to me. “A TV show in incredibly s*****y” well that says nothing and means nothing how can you get so worked up over a tv show, and aren’t there other adjectives to express your sentiments? “**** this make up jar it’s the wrong color.” I mean, really? And this isn’t just one or two, it’s every day.

As a member of a couple of TV fandoms, I can assure you the level of worked up we could get to is somewhere near Alpha Centauri, but I take your point; the words also lose power and get tired (again the GAA comes to mind, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Australian_Adjective)

I don’t get it.

Oh, I would side-eye anyone who used it in a formal setting, or deliberately to someone they knew it would offend (same as I would anyone who used impeccably polite English to casually insult someone in either situation). Social media's a grey area, since most people I know seem to think it's the same as just talking to friends (and never seem to learn when people they didn't want to 'hear' it... read it).

That's garbage and not at all correct. I have a very large vocabulary. I can also swear the air blue when frustrated. It's some puritan nonsense.

Yuzuru, after his FS, apparently came out with something that in English would definitely draw coals of fire on his head, but in Japanese and under pressure... not so much. And it's not the first time (And then there was the lipreading bonus from Patrick Chan at Sochi... it happens.) And yet, anyone who has heard/read translations of the Japanese interviews/speeches/press conferences wouldn't dream of criticising Yuzu's eloquence.

 

[Ducky]

As someone who's not that young, and doesn't use much herself, and a lexiconophiliac to boot... she was wrong. Several of the most highly literate people I know, both in real life and as public figures, use a fair amount of it (though creatively). It's simply IMO that the words that shock and offend are again shifting, as we are being always left behind.

Religious profanity (which never really went away, just got euphemised) having lost its power, now the sex/bodily function ones are losing the first place in shock/offense to slurs that were, if not polite, more common (even among people who would NEVER swear) a couple of generations ago, the ones based on race/gender/disability etc. They are not profanity per se but it's a swings and roundabouts thing, and they are way more unacceptable than plain swearing. I've no doubt that it will change again, and something else will be seen as fouler.

Of course I grew up with the Great Australian Adjective, so maybe see swearing in a different light (and have long been amused by the studies that prove that, when in pain? - a string of wholehearted and strong obscenity can and does actually mitigate the pain a bit...)

Oh Americans are quite prudish when it comes to swearing. I was amazed when I lived in England that they allowed the F-bomb on broadcast tv after the watershed whereas in the States it would reported to the FCC because someone's child might have been watching. Or the number of perfectly fine-for-teen-movies that are rated R because the teens talk like actual teenagers. As we say on the twitterz: oh ffs.

Swearing salts the language. It's fine to throw in the casual f-bomb or call out an episode of a tv show in twitter for being s****y as long as it's casual. It's crossing the line when it's done in anger or to intimidate someone.

 

[el henry]

whole post
.

I do agree with what you have written, and I don't doubt that any fandom, such as skating, can get passionate. But telling me that a program, skating or TV, is "s*****y" doesn't tell me anything, unless of course it is literally filled with excrement, which I doubt. Of course an athlete is going to react with swear words in the heat of the moment, figure skater or football player. For me that's different than dropping a F bomb because you don't like the color of your make-up case, and taking the time to write it in your tweet.

And no one I know talks that way in person, except at Eagles games. Like I said, when I was 15 I thought it was cool and adult and just the greatest thing to throw in some swear words to show how grown up I was. Prudishness doesn't have a lot to do with it, in my case, but adulting does.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Interesting remarks for sure. Certainly not what I expected but then I think most here are not children of the 1950s. For instance, to paraphrase, if a football player in the 1960s had said, "To all those who didnt believe in us, F - you" instead of "To all those that didnt believe in us, we rose to the occasion and proved you wrong.", he would have been considered contemptuous and disrespectful. Or, in the words of R. Pirsig in the last century in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a study of values" ..."We live in a hyped up , F-you society." And he is right. But times have changed since I grew up. No more washing a kid's mouth out with soap for swearing....or teaching them respect for others. We have gone from a world where the word "pregnant" could not be uttered on TV to a world full of F-bombs and "me first" disrepectful people. I wonder what's next from California?

For me, I would never stand up in my front row seat at a skating event and yell "F-you! You Suck! " I might say that in my car alone when another driver endangers my life....but not at a skating event.
I wouldnt want JFK to stand up at inaugeration and say "We will beat the F-ing Russians to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is F-ing hard."

He can say it if he hits his thumb with a hammer, though.

(Do they swear at each other in Japan?)

 

[Interspectator]

I've tried to curse on occasion...but my friends and I agree I'm so bad at it that it's best not to expand that side of myself. I don't mind if they swear, but you need to do it with conviction, intention, aplomb and timing. It's too tough to get the hang of.

Though calling someone a 'fool' with the right amount of disdain can be a lot more biting (or funny) than a string of more lurid language. JMO.

About Japan, it has curse words but not as many...and they are generally seen as a juvenile thing (though other Japanese posters may disagree?)... an insult in Japan may be more along the lines of a omitted politeness. Dropping the honorific or something like that. But there's all kinds of slang words that younger kids use that changes all the time but I wouldn't call them profanity. I can barely keep up. --I don't watch enough Japanese TV.

Since this is about skaters, Yuzu occasionally uses 'bad' words in casual interviews with Matsuoka Shuzo. In describing the thoughts that went through his head before his epic FS performance at GPF 2015, the crowd was chanting Javi's name and Yuzu was up next, his thoughts were "Oh s--t, well watch this!" https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/s...-Emotions-at-GPF-Interview&highlight=emotions

 

[brens78]

Chris, I'm in my 80's but I've remembered all my life what an 8th grade teacher told us. She said that people who use foul language constantly are people who are too lazy or too ignorant to build a decent vocabulary. I don't care what your age is or your culture, it's how I judge young & old.

Oh your ears will bleed in Australia lol!

 

[Interspectator]

Oh your ears will bleed in Australia lol!

I find Australians swearing very funny. It's my favorite.

 

[anonymoose_au]

I'll never forget finding a video of Brian Joubert's swearing in the KnC after the Free at Vancouver 2010. It was in French, of course, but in Canada I bet a LOT of TV viewers knew what he was saying!

But yeah Aussies swear a lot...h*ll and d*mn show up in kids books here! And never forget bl**dy

I wouldnt want JFK to stand up at inaugeration and say "We will beat the F-ing Russians to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is F-ing hard."

That's such an hilarious image though! I'm having a chuckle just thinking about it. If he'd said that he'd have been considered a hero in Australia.

 

[TallyT]

I was amazed when I lived in England that they allowed the F-bomb on broadcast tv after the watershed whereas in the States it would reported to the FCC because someone's child might have been watching.

I watch a lot of British comedy panels or interview shows... several of them have a LOT of what you might call Anglo-Saxonisms thrown around as casually as you please.

Though calling someone a 'fool' with the right amount of disdain can be a lot more biting (or funny) than a string of more lurid language. JMO.

My person favourite insult is 'slubberdegullion' - it's an archaism (our ancestors had some wonderfully rude and inventive insults!) but you have to admit, even if you've never heard it before it sounds dead insulting...

 

[karne]

I wouldnt want JFK to stand up at inaugeration and say "We will beat the F-ing Russians to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is F-ing hard."

Oh please. In case you haven't noticed, no, that doesn't happen. Speaking in a formal setting is still done without swearing. And when I was working around children I came up with some very funny word-swaps (including "floogel!" the morning I tipped a cold cup of water down the sleeve of my jumper...while the air temperature was -5C...by accident. The nearby parent thought it was hilarious).

There's nothing wrong with a few swears. And as for teaching respect for others? Millennials and Z have got it for each other in spades. But since we never seem to get that respect from the older generations, why should we show it back?

 

[CoyoteChris]

My person favourite insult is 'slubberdegullion' - it's an archaism (our ancestors had some wonderfully rude and inventive insults!) but you have to admit, even if you've never heard ot before it sounds dead insulting...

LOL! My personal favorite is "muggle". I am on the Hogwarts committee to end "muggle shaming"

 

[CoyoteChris]

Oh your ears will bleed in Australia lol!

I have never been to England but I am told by my friends that you may want to re-consider going to an English soccer match, too.

 

[el henry]

Interesting remarks for sure. Certainly not what I expected but then I think most here are not children of the 1950s. For instance, to paraphrase, if a football player in the 1960s had said, "To all those who didnt believe in us, F - you" instead of "To all those that didnt believe in us, we rose to the occasion and proved you wrong.", he would have been considered contemptuous and disrespectful. Or, in the words of R. Pirsig in the last century in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a study of values" ..."We live in a hyped up , F-you society." And he is right. But times have changed since I grew up. No more washing a kid's mouth out with soap for swearing....or teaching them respect for others. We have gone from a world where the word "pregnant" could not be uttered on TV to a world full of F-bombs and "me first" disrepectful people. I wonder what's next from California?

For me, I would never stand up in my front row seat at a skating event and yell "F-you! You Suck! " I might say that in my car alone when another driver endangers my life....but not at a skating event.
I wouldnt want JFK to stand up at inaugeration and say "We will beat the F-ing Russians to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is F-ing hard."

He can say it if he hits his thumb with a hammer, though.

(Do they swear at each other in Japan?)

Chris, you honor me if you think I am not a child of the 50s (although I don't really recall them. Spousal unit, on the other hand, born in the last year of the 40s, does )

Jason Kelce's swearing was completely appropriate in context, and I speak as an oldster who generally has no use for it. But maybe you need to be the fan of a team that has never won the Super Bowl, that no one even picked to win the first playoff game, let alone beat the vaunted Patriots.

We're from Philly, bleeping Philly, no one likes us, we don't care

And of course I have been in situations, particularly in traffic, where I question the parentage, sexual habits, and toilet training of my fellow drivers, with appropriate symbols.

But I think I must be Japanese It's not as though I'm clutching my pearls mostly I feel if someone feels the need to write "s***" instead of "stuff" or bleep even the most minor inconveniences. particularly writing it on social media, it's like, well, your vocab has not grown since tenth grade. Okey dokey then.....

 

[Mathman]

I wouldnt want JFK to stand up at inaugeration and say...

Ask not what your m*****-f***ing country can do for you."

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I don’t speak Russian but I think Zhenya let fly with some creative language at JGPF in Barcelona. She was waiting for Eteri to negotiate that weird maze to the KnC and then when Eteri finally appeared she told her how she about a the Salchow she had issues with or something like that.

https://youtu.be/HXYG8fnh0bk?t=4m51s

IIRC:

Zhenya: I don’t give a :curse: about that jump

Eteri: Zhenya!! Cameras!!

Zhenya : :


Any Russian speakers care to correct my memory. I thought it was hilarious and wasn’t offended at all. In fact..I like her attitude in this instance.