The Language of Movies

*Potential Trigger Warning*

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker regarding “The F Word.” The co-worker was telling me how much she hated the word in question and I was somewhat perplexed, as I was certain that I had heard her use it before. As the conversation continued, I eventually realized that we were talking about different “F Words.” I was talking about the one that rhymes with “duck” and she was talking about the one that rhymes with “rag” (or “maggot”). 

This got me thinking. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, that particular slur was commonplace, not only in the schoolyard but also in film and television. Hearing comedians casually say “faggot” or “retard” was not unusual and such words were met with little to no condemnation. Seeing a man cross dress or undergo sexual reassignment surgery was often the butt of many jokes. 

Ethnic slurs were definitely out, unless your goal was to illustrate that someone was ignorant or cruel. This has been the case in Hollywood films for a long time, but there are other racist crimes that Hollywood is guilty of (hearing Humphrey Bogart say “It’s mighty white of you,” is unsettling- what the young people today call “cringe”). Sometimes slurs (particularly the dreaded “N-word”) can be thrown around casually by African-American comedians and entertainers and this is often given a pass. This can backfire, of course, if you’re a white kid in the suburbs reciting an Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor routine without really grasping what is being said. 

Much has been made of the “woke mob” being too sensitive to appreciate a good joke and while I think that despising someone because they believe in the equality of all humans is peak right-wing stupidity, it does bring me back to a discussion I’ve had before: what to do about those older films that contain that sort of language or depictions? 

I have long thought, and continue to believe, that the best course of action is a simple disclaimer. This alerts viewers while leaving the films themselves untouched. There are those (see “right-wing stupidity” above) who think that disclaimers are wrong but I find it interesting that they are often the same people who are horribly offended by the mere mention of an LGBTQ+ person in a Disney film. 

The films I grew up watching that contained that kind of language absolutely affected me and I am now trying to purge from my vocabulary the words that were okay thirty-odd years ago that are no longer acceptable. 

Is it giving into the “woke mob”? 

No. 

It’s simply me trying to be a better person than I was.