“Graham had married Katharine Meyer, whose father owned TheWashington Post, and he now ran The Post and the publishing empire that controlled Newsweek. But according to the telex, he was in the midst of a crack-up and was having a very public affair with a young woman who worked for Newsweek. He had misbehaved at some event or other and had used the word “fuck” in the course of it all. It was a big deal to say the word “fuck” in that era. This is one of the things that drives me absolutely crazy when I see movies that take place in the fifties and early sixties; people are always saying “fuck” in them. Trust me, no one threw that word around then the way they do now.”
In mixed company, she probably meant. Assuming she’s right, how did the change come about?
I’d say it’s true that in 1960, if you wanted people to see you as a clean-cut guy, you didn’t curse in front of the ladies. Or kids. Maybe a damn, maybe a hell, but that’s it. You could let loose in the locker room. And everyone pretended that well-bred ladies weren’t even acquainted with bad words. So what changed?
First theory: Hollywood. Movies and TV were what people watched when they were deciding what kind of person to be. Did the Code even allow cursing, beyond Rhett Butler’s famous “damn”? Even by the bad guys? If there’s no such thing as an R-rated movie, then inventing an R rating turns out to have the opposite of the intended effect.
The counterculture of the 1960s eliminated a lot of pointless taboos about language. At the same time, a lot of young men were returning to civilian life from military service where coarse language had already been the norm for decades.
I think it started long before the 1960s. It began in the aftermath of World War One (Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller), and accelerated in the aftermath of World War Two (Norman Mailer).
In the first “Private Snafu” animated short, the narrator pointedly pauses while explaining what “SNAFU” stands for: “Situation Normal, All…. FOULED Up.”
Judging by the number of times “expletive deleted” appears in the transcripts of the Nixon tapes, I’d say swearing was not as a rare as some would have you believe. Unless you think Nixon didn’t start swearing like a sailor until the 1960’s.
Some musing: Was “F you” a common phrase before, oh, mid 1960s, compared to “Go F yourself?” I think the latter is less common nowadays compared to the former. Reason I ask is that I found *three different references where a notable person said, “Tell him to go F himself” from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. Maybe “F you/him/them, etc.” took over as just being a little shorter to say. I wasn’t around then, so I wouldn’t know how common it was, and press accounts are rather thin with regard to F bombs.
*Marilyn Monroe, Boxer Henry Cooper, and some Hollywood producer’s wife whose name I don’t recall.
Yes, but the OP wasn’t just asking about swearing, but about swearing in “mixed company.”
Which isn’t a phrase you hear much anymore. So maybe part of what has changed is that there’s less of a sense that environments where both men and women are present (and possibly children) are somehow different and different rules apply.
The Jack Paar “mayday event” is an example. Jack Paar hosted the Tonight Show from 7/29/1957 to 3/30/1962. One night Paar was doing something that involved him holding up a model boat. He lost his grip on the boat, and his remark was bleeped. I can’t find the details right now, but here, roughly, is what happened on the next show. He was so worried that viewers thought they saw him swear on-air that he explained that, being a Navy vet, he had said a word you can’t legally say on-air unless you’re on a sinking ship. Paar held up a sign saying “mayday,” explaining that the FCC won’t let him speak it. He wanted to make sure viewers didn’t think he had cussed.
I remember being all gung-ho about the prospect of watching the TV show “Deadwood”. It had received outstanding reviews and I was certain I was going to love it.
So, I settled back and tuned into Episode One. Almost immediately, the F-bombs started flying and it took me right out of the show*. They didn’t speak like that in the 1800s…did they?
I turned it off after 20 minutes, never to return.
mmm
*Note: I have no objection to appropriate uses of the word and its variations
I believe the creators have addressed that, saying that the actual curse words that were considered so profane at the time would seem comical today, like “Oh tarnation!” and “dagnabbit!” so they used the equivalent modern-day language to provide the same feel. Otherwise it’ll feel like cartoon swearing. The amount of profanity used at the time was said to be accurate, however.
So, had he actually cussed? The notion that it was forbidden to say “Mayday” on air unless you’re on a sinking ship is obvious nonsense–I’ve heard it said hundreds of times on various TV shows, in both dramatic and comedic contexts, from fictional protrayals of sinking ships to Sam Malone’s old baseball nickname being “Mayday Malone” on Cheers. So did Paar actually swear, and was making up the “mayday” thing to cover it up?