.rants.rants.rants.rants.rants.rants.rants.rants.rants.
Why is the F Word Used in Everyday Conversation?
That is the question that I found myself asking today on my way home. I live in Toronto and around the 3:30pm mark is when all the students pile on to transit and jam the buses full of obnoxiousness. Granted I was a teenager once upon a time but I can’t remember ever being as loud as these kids are. Maybe I just had learned that respect factor from my mother. You are probably all thinking that I am talking about the four letter F word, well that is a good assumption but in fact I am not. I’m talking about another F word, one that has six characters and is used in a derogatory context. You know the one that Kobe Bryant used and got himself fined for? Well that would be the one, faggot.
Personally, I really detest that word. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I have actually even said that word out loud. However, it seems that today’s kids throw it around like it is nothing at all, it is used the same way a person uses hello and goodbye. It is a concept that is mostly lost on me. Back to my opening paragraph for a moment, as I was saying around 3:30pm these kids all pile on various public transit buses. I was sitting down and I heard them all standing around talking, usually I tend to block them out because, do I really want to listen to what they have to say? It was when I heard the word faggot that it caught my attention. I listened for a few minutes and in those few minutes four of the five kids standing beside me proceeded to use the word in excess of about 20 times. They were using it to describe how they were going to beat up this ‘faggot’ kid at school and how he was a ‘faggot’ because he didn’t play sports, or he was a ‘faggot’ for something or another. Really the list could go on and on forever.
I have to be honest I sort of sat there stunned at how they could just use the word so freely as if it was not a degrading in the least. I don’t remember once as a child or teenager ever even having that word come into my head, sure I heard it, but to use it against somebody to put them down? I was ashamed to hear these ‘children’ speak like that to be honest. Ashamed that this was what our youth were coming to. Now, don’t get me wrong I know all youth aren’t like that, and I’m not generalizing, but I see it more and more all the time. It is heartbreaking that a generation is growing up using words like that to harm others emotionally (and in more extreme cases physically).
If you have ever been talked about in this way, or had words such as ‘faggot’ tossed at you, please drop us a line at soundfaction@gmail.com and share your stories with us. Help us put a light to how words can be just as harmful as actions. This is a time for people to speak up and speak out.
GO BACK TO RANTS
Personally, I really detest that word. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I have actually even said that word out loud. However, it seems that today’s kids throw it around like it is nothing at all, it is used the same way a person uses hello and goodbye. It is a concept that is mostly lost on me. Back to my opening paragraph for a moment, as I was saying around 3:30pm these kids all pile on various public transit buses. I was sitting down and I heard them all standing around talking, usually I tend to block them out because, do I really want to listen to what they have to say? It was when I heard the word faggot that it caught my attention. I listened for a few minutes and in those few minutes four of the five kids standing beside me proceeded to use the word in excess of about 20 times. They were using it to describe how they were going to beat up this ‘faggot’ kid at school and how he was a ‘faggot’ because he didn’t play sports, or he was a ‘faggot’ for something or another. Really the list could go on and on forever.
I have to be honest I sort of sat there stunned at how they could just use the word so freely as if it was not a degrading in the least. I don’t remember once as a child or teenager ever even having that word come into my head, sure I heard it, but to use it against somebody to put them down? I was ashamed to hear these ‘children’ speak like that to be honest. Ashamed that this was what our youth were coming to. Now, don’t get me wrong I know all youth aren’t like that, and I’m not generalizing, but I see it more and more all the time. It is heartbreaking that a generation is growing up using words like that to harm others emotionally (and in more extreme cases physically).
If you have ever been talked about in this way, or had words such as ‘faggot’ tossed at you, please drop us a line at soundfaction@gmail.com and share your stories with us. Help us put a light to how words can be just as harmful as actions. This is a time for people to speak up and speak out.
GO BACK TO RANTS
