Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

36 Forbidden Words
So, defining the boundaries of taste is controversial. Nevertheless, when we
describe an expression as an orthophemism or euphemism or dysphemism
without making reference to the context of its use, it is the middle-class
politeness criterion (MCPC) that we have in mind.
By our definition of dysphemism, some of the language in the following
quote would count as dysphemistic, i.e. offensive. Although the speaker was
summonsed for using offensive language, the case was dismissed. The scene
occurred outside the defendant’s house at around 11.30 at night; police were
at the scene.
‘What the fuck are youse doing here. My fuckin’ son had to get me out of bed. I can’t
believe youse are here. What the fuck are youse doing here?’ (to the police).
‘I fuckin’ know what this is about. Its about that fuckin’ gas bottle. They can get
fucked, I’m not paying them fucking nothing. They can get me our fuckin’ bottle back’
(to the police about the neighbours).
‘We never had any fuckin’ trouble till youse fuckin’ moved here. Youse have fuckin’
caused this trouble and called the fuckin’ police on me’ (to the neighbours). (Police v.
Butler (2003) NSWLC 2 before Heilpern J, 14 June 2002)
By the MCPC, the defendant did use offensive language – why is it not
offensive in law? 7 The judgment in the case in question referred to another
case, where a defendant was summonsed for saying to the police restraining
him during a brawl:
Get fucked you cunts, I’m just trying to help my mates.
That case was dismissed on the following basis:
I [Justice Yeldham] determined by a consideration as best I could of community
standards today and decisions on this kind of legislation over the last twenty years, that
the words were not intrinsically ‘offensive’ in the requisite legal sense of that word.
In Police v. Butler, Justice Heilpern referred to several similar cases, and
also to the extreme prevalence of words like fuck and cunt within the
community, and their frequency on free-to-air television and other media: 8
Channel 9 has recently broadcast a show (Sex in the City) that includes the words ‘fuck
off’ and ‘fucking’ as well as ‘cunt’. The word was used on ‘The Panel’ and the station
only received two complaints. Recently, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that
‘fuck’ was used in the television program ‘The Sopranos’ seventy-one times in one
single episode (SMH April 29, 2000, 3s). Big Brother residents evidently cannot live
without the word in every episode.
Justice Heilpern concluded that:
This is a classic example of conduct which offends against the standards of good taste
or good manners, which is a breach of the rules of courtesy and runs contrary to