| Bad Words? In *MY* Penguicon? |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|06:43 am] |
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.
--George Carlin I am more than slightly amused to see this response amongst the slowly growing shit storm regarding my post, specifically my amusement stems from the response taking place within the same arbitrarily brief time period following the demise of one of my heroes, George Carlin, who so often waxed eloquent about this very subject. You will find that I am far less eloquent on the same matter.
At first I was annoyed. I really wanted to wade into the thick of the posts and mock these people mercilessly, instead, I will point out why it annoys me, and that can best be summed up by two topics: hypocrisy and language.
The hypocrisy should be self evident to those that have attended a Penguicon event. The poster in question, one Ms. Sarah Elkins, points out how unprofessional such bold-faced swearing is, and indicates that "It's also a shame that I don't want to point my boss or colleagues to the site about this cool convention I go to". She has a point, if you think about it. I mean, who would want to point their boss of colleagues to a site that has swearing on it, which might prevent them from finding out about the parties, beer tastings, plays, free hugs, rampant alcohol consumption, costume parties, and photos and video of scantily clad men and women, not to mention con reports rife with mentions of groping, drunkenness, and random fun. Nothing says professionalism like dudes in drag and chicks with duct tape on their nipples, ya know.
The fact is, that while a lot of very professional things are going on at Penguicon, a lot of decidedly unprofessional things go on as well. When the third item on the events list from 6.0 is Jello Shots 101, you can't tell me that "asking for vacation or thinking about trying to get approval to propose a presentation that would have something to do with work" while pointing to the home page of such a site is a rational act. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that anyone for whom swearing is verboten is going to find institutionally approved Jello shots one click from the home page to be an endearing quality.
And that, really, is the hypocrisy of the thing. It's the targeting of language specifically, despite the fact that Penguicon is purposely a mixture of professional and absurdly unprofessional. When you have Beer Tastings and Jello Shots panels right next to discussions of Futurics and Linux Installfests, you are going to have a hard time selling me on the inherent professionalism of the event. Perhaps swearing is the least of your concerns, in that case. It's the hypocritical targeting of language thinly veiled behind concerns that ring false even to the most casual reader. "Think of my boss" is apparently Penguicon's version of the conservative right's "think of the children", and it is similarly false.
This brings me to my other point, and one I've been arguing for quite some time; language. We are attacking language as if the use of "fuck" is somehow inherently worse than the use of some other word. Why? Because it grates on our harsh, puritan sensibilities? It is appalling, to me, that in 2008, the word "fuck", or "shit", or "cunt" has so much power still. Thirty-six years after Carlin was arrested for "Seven Dirty Words", over half of those words STILL cannot be uttered on network television... and they are still causing problems on the Internet for some apparently. Ridiculous.
Words have power in language because we give them power. They are mere symbols for an idea, so while I can completely understand finding issue with the symbol for an abhorrent idea (see "felching" [please let me say, don't click that link if "fuck" offends you. Please, heed my warning.]). What I simply cannot fathom, nor can I abide it quietly, is taking exception to the symbol for a perfectly innocent idea like "fuck", "cunt", or "shit"; A natural act, a beautiful anatomical part (although, an admittedly UGLY sounding word for it), and something we all do (some more than others).
It's not that I care if you use the word or don't. Shit, I don't even really care if you opt to be offended by the words or you don't (and, to head this argument off, I'm not saying Ms. Elkins was offended, she certainly didn't say so, and I'm not putting those words in her mouth). What I am pointing out is that these words are there. They are used frivolously in public at this point in time. It is rare that I go a day without hearing a random stranger drop the "F-bomb". But there it is, sitting in bold print on the Internet, and that piece of language is the dividing line of professionalism. Use fuck, unprofessional; no fuck, professional. Use fuck, I can't show this page to my boss; no fuck, I can. Use fuck, no subscription to the RSS feed; no fuck, I'm subscribed.
It's crazy when you think about it.
So, short story-long, I would genuinely love to be apologetic about the use of the word fuck. I would like to be able to say that I am legitimately sorry that I posted part of an ongoing bit in table form in the show notes. I would like to say that I am impressed by the quick response of the Penguicon leadership that quickly moved to censor the content of the post by removing the table. The simple fact is, I'm none of these things. I'm unapologetic, and likely to remain that way.
It's a fucking word, you know? |
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