Don't Devalue the F-Word

This article was posted in 'The Washington Post' some time ago, and later highlighted in 'The Week Magazine.' It raises a valuable point about the devaluing of the F-bomb. If you want to keep f--- obscene, I urge you to read this article, sign this petition, and help spread the word. Make it known that you want this word potent throughout modern times!



The F-word isnt what it used to be, said Joel Achenbach in The Washington Post. Once the most tabooand thus, most emphaticword in the English language, the F-bomb is now used in everyday speech as an all-purpose intensifier. Hip-hop artists, bloggers, and people under 25 now use f--- so casually and frequently that it has lost its power to shock. The word has become so mundane, in fact, that even politicians such as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and John Kerry have all felt comfortable using it in interviews and in public. The cheapening of f--- is a shamenot because it is a bad word, but because, in certain circumstances, it is a very good word. Dropped into the right sentence at the right time, the words rock-hard consonants explode off the tongue, making plain language more colorful and emphatic. Drop a hammer on your toe, and nothing provides the therapeutic value of shouting F---! (Try shouting Drat! or Dagnabbit!) To convey fury, or urgency, or comic incongruity, nothing works as well as f---, as long as it is reserved for these special occasions. So in the interests of one of the English languages great legacies, lets all stop saying f---, unless we have really good cause. For the good of human communication we must come together, as a people, to protect this word, and ensure that, years from now, it remains obscene.