Cultural Taboos

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Don't give up the day job, Death Rabbit - your sense of humor should be a cultural taboo!!

 

Well if Depaara is a prude, then i'm Satan after all. Words can be dangerous things. they can be used to create (ask Mathetais) or destroy.
Verbally expressing your thoughts is a gift, and should be treated that way. in other words, choose your words carefully. now i myself am known to curse aloud when i screw up or hurt myself, however i try not to use such words in regards to others or in the presence of others.
The "taboo" is not actually the words, but what they represent.

on that thought DeathRabbit, (cotton pony?) dude that's just wrong

 

@ Falstaff

Damn straight!

@ Greenlion420

But a classic, no? I have more where that come from.

 

Let me start by getting the PC-disclaimer out of the way: The following comments represent the observations of Rallymama and are in no way indicative of an attitude of wholesale discrimination against any group based on gender, age, race, faith, sexual orientation, or sports-team fan affiliation. If you don't like what you read, take it up with Rally personally and leave the management of Sorcerer's Place out of it.

Falstaff, have you ever spent much time around urban youth? It seems to me that city kids go even farther out of their way to attract attention than do suburban kids. It's that whole "in your face" thing, with the stupid hand gestures, big groups taking over the sidewalk or aisle and walking v e r y s l o w l y, and screaming at each other all the time. Of course they can't shout something innocuous, like "Girlfriend, love the outfit!" No, it has to be "Hey, ho, you gonna get some t'nite, lookin' so fine!" God forbid that anyone around them be allowed a little privacy or peace.

So what do us poor folks do? We politely ignore them. And since "in your face" can't let itself be ignored, they get louder and more offensive in an effort to be recognized. There's a vicious cycle going on - civil people are afraid to tell these brats to shut up and be polite, then the brats get even more obnoxious because they want to be noticed and think they have to be offensive to do so. The end result is that there's a segment of the population that doesn't seem to know how to express itself except in the most extreme of terms.

That reminds me - back in college I was engaged to someone who sincerely believed that the ONLY way to express strong emotion was by using obscenity. To him, anything else was insincere, weak, or pretentious. He generally knew when to keep this reflex in check but soemtimes slipped. However, when I said that I found it very offensive and asked him to tone it down, he told me that it was the only "real" means of self-expression and I'd just have to get used to it! Can you guess why we never got married?

 

Good observations Rallymama. If you do say anything to these kids, they yap about freedom of speech. I'm telling you, though, the pendulum is going to swing, and there's going to be a backlash against the excessive profanity in our society, you just wait.

 

@ Rallymama - good observations. I have not spent a great deal of time around urban youth, but I do have this observation from a co-worker who has.

I believe that there is more to it than "not knowing how to express myself so I use obscenity" going on. I think that you are right when you mention that it is closer to: "I feel that noone listens to me, so I use obscenity to make them!" And the thing is, it works! I am not saying that it is right or wrong, just that that is the way it happens.

@ Depaara - I think you have something too, especially in light of current events, when you say that the pendulum will swing back in the other direction. Considering strong feelings against "unpatriotic" speech that are rampant now, it may be indicative of the beginning of a motion backwards. Will it happen soon? I don't think so, but it probably will happen.

- off topic - When did you get a lordship?? What are you Lord of?? How are the medical benefits?

 

I am the Lord of Raven's Perch, a small Duchy in the Kingdom of Pharicia on the world of Ardretha. The Medical benefits are irrelevant, as I am a Servant of the Unnamed God, and have vast healing powers at my disposal. Since you asked

You know (getting back on topic), breaking a taboo is not automatically a good thing to do. I believe that a society must be civilized in order to have strength, and that means that certain words are not said under certain circumstances. I mean, everyone defecates, but bringing it up during dinner does not make you smarter than the people around you, it makes you a low class loser.

 

Well, I never said that breaking a taboo is automatically a good thing to do - like (I think all of us) have mentioned before, it is all about the context, the situation. I am certainly not a proponent of obscenities at the Sunday dinner table.

I am not really making an argument for or against the breaking of specific cultural taboos. I am merely making commentary on the breakage phenomena and exploring explanations for it as well as discussing the future trends.

 

I was referring to Death Rabbit's point (which even he stated was just an idea, not one he's sure he buys) that taboos are designed to inhibit thought, and that those that break them are free thinkers escaping society's repression. While some taboos may fit this description, the linguistic ones against s**t and F**k do not.

 

Hmmm. I'd say that such "free thought" is more animalistic than human anyway.

 

Then there are the interesting things, how, for instance, black people are allowed to say n***er, and yet white people can get their ***es kicked for using it in the same context. I really, REALLY don't mean to sound racist, but I notice that there seems (to me anyway) to be a certain way to dress and act and speak that is referred to as 'black culture', and any white people who do the same are wannabe posers. Yet there doesn't seem to be any difinitive 'white culture', other than some extremist morons who believe that being white makes them better. (Not referring to our red-clad moderator, just the people who share his moniker.)

Taboos are interesting. Compare Toronto, New York, and Amsterdam.

 

Perhaps as time passes people get ruder? I neve heard my father swear until he was around 60 and after I got married. My parents never swore, my mother still doesn't, Dad has a rather filthy mouth.

My sister and her husband are "swear-aholics" and of course her kids are too.

I normally speak Hindi with my wife and since I learnt it from her, I don't know many swear words and if other people even use them I don't recognise them.

I have a good repertoire of English swearwords for when I am really angry...(that is so sad.)

I think that if people realise that they don't like other people using abusive language at or with others then they should not use it, nor encourage others to do so.

I would be annoyed with my children for swearing and I have punished them with chillis in the gob for it!

I think swearing is unnessecary to get your point across except in extreme anger, and it should only be used at ones's own stuff ups! (Oops! did I just swear?)

Other intersting taboos are like the way that westerners don't marry cousins. This is quite a common practice around the world. Is that something offensive to you?

 

That leads into what I wanted to mention. Some taboos developed as a survival trait and should not be broken. To some extent cousins, but more specifically siblings and parents/children should not mate as the possibility of birth defects increases. I think that these taboos probably exist in most countries. Does anyone know of any exceptions?

Other taboos are cultural and represent the morality views of the majority. As the majority changes so can their views and their taboos.