# Is "fuck" really that offensive?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 4, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375 "2006-09-04T05:49:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/1 "2006-09-04T05:49:31Z")
I’m watching Inside the Twin Towers on Discovery. They’re re-enactments how people suffocating inside the Towers and actual footage of people falling to their deaths. Yet they’ve decided that the word “fuck” is so offensive to viewers that they must censor actual recordings of eye witness and 911 calls. What the fuck it up with that? I seem to recall “fuck” being said unbleeped on news coverage that day.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/2 "2006-09-04T05:55:54Z")
There’s a new law about decency in broadcasting that requires the Federal Communications Commission to levy large fines for each “indecent” word broadcast for each station that broadcasts it.
I’ll be concise. I believe the new law is rubbish.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/3 "2006-09-04T06:00:55Z")
> [@AskNott](#):
>
> There’s a new law about decency in broadcasting that requires the Federal Communications Commission to levy large fines for each “indecent” word broadcast for each station that broadcasts it.
>
> I’ll be concise. I believe the new law is rubbish.
This is on basic cable after 1:00am. FCC doesn’t have any power over cable. Plus it broadcasts station can air “indecent” content after 10:00pm. They just can’t air “obscene” material at all.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/4 "2006-09-04T06:10:34Z")
When CBS aired the video documentary by those French filmmaker brothers who caught the first crash on tape, and then followed the fire fighters into the towers, all the four-letter words were left in throughout the two-hour program.
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/5 "2006-09-04T06:17:07Z")
> [@AskNott](#):
>
> I’ll be concise. I believe the new law is rubbish.
Me, too! I want to live in a country where every two-year old is exposed to and using words like “shit”, “piss”, “fuck”, “cunt”, “cocksucker”, “motherfucker”, and “tits” at every oportunity! Down with civility! Down with propriety! Down with “adult” language for adults! Make everyone a foul-mouthed cretin, I say; this country is just too damn _mannerly_!
Long live George Carlin!
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/6 "2006-09-04T06:45:46Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> Me, too! I want to live in a country where every two-year old is exposed to and using words like “shit”, “piss”, “fuck”, “cunt”, “cocksucker”, “motherfucker”, and “tits” at every oportunity! Down with civility! Down with propriety! Down with “adult” language for adults! Make everyone a foul-mouthed cretin, I say; this country is just too damn _mannerly_!
>
> Long live George Carlin!
>
> :rolleyes:
They’re words. Forming them into something powerful (_Let’s kill all the Mexicans!_) is offensive; using them for color (_Fuck, it’s hot in here!_) is not.
There are also things called context, body language, relation, and all sorts of other mature, adult concepts that you obviously have no grasp on that govern the use of these and all other words.
Why don’t you admit that - despite your disproportionate use of them when they serve your purpose - _ **you** _ are the one who doesn’t want to hear swear words. They’re no more harmful to kids than a peanut butter sandwich and you know it. There’s not a word in the book they haven’t heard after their first week at public school anyway.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/7 "2006-09-04T06:54:08Z")
Not quite the same thing, but just a little while ago, I flipped past **The Abyss** on a non-premium channel. It was the scene where they bring Mastrantonio’s character back to life. Her bare chest was pixillated. In a totally non-sexual context. GMAFB.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/8 "2006-09-04T06:57:42Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#):
>
> GMAFB
Give Me A Freakin’ Break. Acronym Finder.
(I’d never seen that one before.)
And agreed; GMAFB.
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### Author:  [@Phantom\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phantom_Dennis)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/9 "2006-09-04T07:14:13Z")
Fuckin’ A. My parents did everything in their power to shelter me from “bad” words, yet I learned every single curse in the book (and some that aren’t) by the time I was five. “Protecting” children from curse words is about as effective and useful as protecting them from the color blue.
As long as kids learn the types of situations during which these particular words are inappropriate, I don’t see what the fuss is about.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/10 "2006-09-04T07:16:34Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Give Me A Freakin’ Break.
> …
> GMAFB.
In this thread, should that be “Give Me a Fucking Break”?
(“Freaking” is just a way of avoiding saying “fucking”, and doesn’t have any real meaning in the context)
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/11 "2006-09-04T07:20:31Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> In this thread, should that be “Give Me a Fucking Break”?
>
> (“Freaking” is just a way of avoiding saying “fucking”, and doesn’t have any real meaning in the context)
Sure. I was just going by what AF said by, on second look, it says _Polite form._
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### Author:  [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/12 "2006-09-04T07:21:21Z")
I’m a professional broadcaster. Anything the American public can do to emasculate the FCC would be fine with me! I’m talking about content, of course. Technical matters – well, that’s different. I sure as fuck don’t want some fucking religious station to override my fucking signal because nobody’s taking fucking meter readings. But “fuck”? Shit, man, all of my listeners say it. They’d love it if, just once on the Morning Circus, Andy would say, “Who’s Paris Hilton fucking today?” It’d be a fucking hoot. Fuckin’ A!
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/13 "2006-09-04T08:01:07Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> They’re words. Forming them into something powerful (_Let’s kill all the Mexicans!_) is offensive; using them for color (_Fuck, it’s hot in here!_) is not.
>
> There are also things called context, body language, relation, and all sorts of other mature, adult concepts that you obviously have no grasp on that govern the use of these and all other words.
'Scuse moi?
What sort of ‘mature, adult concept’ that I have no grasp on governs whether or not children (and/or the parents who would rather not have their children hearing such things on public radio/television) would be continually exposed to this type of language if it were given free reign on the public airwaves? The very question posed by this thread’s title gives the lie to your notion that mature, adult concepts would govern these and all other words. I’m well aware that (at this point, anyway) ‘cocksucker’ and ‘motherfucker’ may well be constrained by the types of “concepts” you mention, but it would be only a matter of time (and a short time, most likely) before someone just as innocently asks “What’s wrong with ‘cocksucker’, it’s only a word and a body part…or ‘motherfucker’…I mean, nobody really fucks their mother so what’s the harm?”
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Why don’t you admit that - despite your disproportionate use of them when they serve your purpose - _ **you** _ are the one who doesn’t want to hear swear words.
Hah! I was swearing like a sailor probably long before you were born…but not in front of little kids and not in front of my parents, and not in front of customers of my employers, and not in front of people at the stores where I shop. Let these kinds of words start to go out unfettered over the public airwaves and they acquire a certain acceptance that then becomes the norm, and I don’t want to live in a society where as a parent I’m having to explain to a small child what a cocksucker or motherfucker is, and I don’t want to hear them talking that way either.
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> They’re no more harmful to kids than a peanut butter sandwich and you know it.
False premise, there, chum. I never claimed it harmed them. But as a parent (whose child is grown but the principle is the same), I don’t want my child getting the idea that such language is acceptable to use in society at large, and I don’t want to find myself trying to explain to a small child what a cocksucker is after they just heard on it the radio or television. We’re all entitled to our opinion here, and mine is that society is degraded and made less civil by the widespread acceptance and use of crass, coarse and vulgar words and behavior. You, yourself, seem to acknowledge that there should be some sort of boundry, given your belief that some ‘mature concept’ will keep things in check, so where do you draw the line? And what do you say to the person who comes along and says _that’s_ ridiculous?
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> There’s not a word in the book they haven’t heard after their first week at public school anyway.
Well, you know, pornography doesn’t ‘hurt’ children (in the context you mean it); I suppose that as long as some other little kid is showing it around the first week of school then we should all be in favor of kids seeing porn. I mean, after all, you’re in favor of verbal porn, why not visual porn as well? :rolleyes:
Once upon a time in this country, small children didn’t hear these kinds of words their first week at school. I don’t believe I heard words like cocksucker and motherfucker and cunt until I was in the eighth or ninth grade…and I certainly didn’t hear them as a two-year old coming from my parents’ television or radio. And now things have gotten to the point where people are becoming incensed at the bleeping of “bullshit” from a publicly broadcast concert and sincerely questioning whether “fuck” should be prohibited over public airwaves by the FCC.
I wonder what has changed, and from what segment of society this change has occurred.
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/14 "2006-09-04T09:06:16Z")
> [@Sunrazor](#):
>
> I’m a professional broadcaster. Anything the American public can do to emasculate the FCC would be fine with me! I’m talking about content, of course. Technical matters – well, that’s different. I sure as fuck don’t want some fucking religious station to override my fucking signal because nobody’s taking fucking meter readings. But “fuck”? Shit, man, all of my listeners say it. They’d love it if, just once on the Morning Circus, Andy would say, “Who’s Paris Hilton fucking today?” It’d be a fucking hoot. Fuckin’ A!
Well I’ll be viciously rogered 🙂 surely you meant not who but how many is Paris Hilton fucking today 😛
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### Author:  [@yelimS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yelimS)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/15 "2006-09-04T09:16:26Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Sure. I was just going by what AF said by, on second look, it says _Polite form._
Oh, do give me a freaking break, Winston, I don’t want any buttered scones just now, I haff to play the grand piaaaner.
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### Author:  [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/16 "2006-09-04T11:17:40Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> I’m watching Inside the Twin Towers on Discovery. They’re re-enactments how people suffocating inside the Towers and actual footage of people falling to their deaths. Yet they’ve decided that the word “fuck” is so offensive to viewers that they must censor actual recordings of eye witness and 911 calls.
What offends me is they decide to censor that word from 9/11 recordings. It denigrates and dishonors the memory of those who lost their lives on that day. Here’s a question for the censors:
you’re gonna fucking die, what other word would be appropriate in that situation?
It was damn serious. How could the re-enactments be anything other than revisionist history if they edited down what was said. Again, people were about to die. You cannot get any more real than that. Censoring their final words is a travesty almost equal to the events of 9/11.
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### Author:  [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/17 "2006-09-04T11:33:44Z")
I remember watching the live footage of the Towers falling and someone off camera shouting at people to “get the fuck back!!” OWTTE My mother nearly choked on her own spit “is that sort of language really necessary?!”
Yes you stupid cow - in those circumstances it’s perfectly appropriate to swear.
(IANA doctor but I think my mother is mentally ill BTW)
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/18 "2006-09-04T12:30:33Z")
When the first plane hit the towers, there was a round of “Holy shit” from the people who filmed it.
So they are taking out the “fucks,” but leaving the images of people jumping off the Towers, choosing to die by hitting the sidewalk rather than be asphyxiated by the smoke or burned alive. Which is more offensive?
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/19 "2006-09-04T13:29:09Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> I’m watching Inside the Twin Towers on Discovery. They’re re-enactments how people suffocating inside the Towers and actual footage of people falling to their deaths. Yet they’ve decided that the word “fuck” is so offensive to viewers that they must censor actual recordings of eye witness and 911 calls. What the fuck it up with that? I seem to recall “fuck” being said unbleeped on news coverage that day.
We watched the same show last night, and had the same reaction you did. The part I remember was the clip of the plane hitting the second tower. We can see the plane come in, hit the tower, and many, many people died in that second. But they had to bleep over the witness saying “Jesus fucking Christ!”
How screwed up can we get?
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fuck-really-that-offensive/371375/20 "2006-09-04T13:46:00Z")
> [@Lobelia Overhill](#):
>
> I remember watching the live footage of the Towers falling and someone off camera shouting at people to “get the fuck back!!” OWTTE My mother nearly choked on her own spit “is that sort of language really necessary?!”
>
> Yes you stupid cow - in those circumstances it’s perfectly appropriate to swear.
“You stupid cow”? With all due respect, I’d say that’s _definitely_ unnecessary.
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