Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

The language of political correctness 107
In the genre of ‘reality TV’ like Big Brother, sitcoms like Sex in the City and
dramas like The Sopranos, such words are commonplace. The designer label
FCUK appears prominently on billboards and clothing everywhere. ‘Foul
language’ regularly turns up in movies rated PG (parental guidance), and is
no longer confined by the censors to more restrictive categories (MA, R,
XXX). In Australia, such words are frequently encountered in the public
arena and there is wide acceptance of it. In an April 1999 radio interview,
Premier Jeff Kennett of Victoria described people who flouted the temporary
restrictions on gas usage as pricks; there was barely a ripple. The same year,
the Australia Institute’s executive director, Dr Clive Hamilton, said fuck
during an interview on the ABC’s well-respected current affairs programme,
Four Corners; it was the third occurrence of the word on the programme that
year. About the same time appeared a highly successful TV advertisement
using the expletive Bugger! to sell a Toyota utility truck. This followed a
West Australian Lotteries advertisement, in which a winner says Bullshit!.
Newspapers, which would once have resorted to coy abbreviations when
reporting such events, now use the words explicitly without warning. In
1991, the Press Council of Australia ruled on a complaint against ‘vile
obscene language’ in a press interview with actor Bryan Brown:
News Ltd responded at some length to Mr Purvey’s objections, saying in essence that
the use of expletives had gained wide acceptance and such profanities were no longer
confined to the factory floor or dockside. It supported its argument with a Telegraph-
Mirror article quoting a university language expert as saying that four-letter profanities
were now widely used by both men and women. The Council believes, in this case,
that the use of the word in full was justified. 43
Since the 1980s, obscene language charges from around Australia have
been dismissed, with courts ruling that words such as fuck, shit and cunt are
no longer ‘offensive within the meaning of the Act’. 44
There are two reasons why SMD words have lost their former power. First,
terms of abuse lose their sting with frequent use. Second, sex and bodily
functions are no longer tabooed as they were in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. While some people still complain about hearing such
words in the public arena, what is now perceived as truly obscene are racial
and ethnic slurs, the use of which may provoke legal consequences. For
instance, sports players are occasionally ‘sin-binned’ but never charged for
foul language on the field, unless the complaint involves race discrimination or
vilification. When a footballer was disciplined for calling Aboriginal player
Michael Long ‘black cunt’ during an Australian Rules match, the reports and
re-reports of the incident made no reference to the use of cunt. It was the racial
abuse that triggered the uproar, and the incident gave rise to a new code of
conduct against racial vilification both on and off the sporting oval. 45