New York Times Illustrates What a 'Douche' Is
In case you'd like a demonstration of what qualifies as behaving like a douche, look no further than the New York Times' Page 1 story Saturday about the shifting conventions of language usage on television.
There are so many things wrong with this article it's difficult to know where to begin, but I think the placement pretty much trumps them all -- as if there's anything remotely new about language standards gradually shifting over time. The story also references "the family hour," acknowledges that the family hour hasn't existed since the mid-1970s, and then talks about the family hour some more.
It was 20 years ago, in fact, that CBS caused a stir by letting a child say "You suck" to her brother in a new sitcom, "Uncle Buck," adapted from the movie. The republic has survived, even if "Uncle Buck" didn't. But it's a pretty good case study in how these controversies have flared over the years, as standards and conventions change and evolve.
The main problem is that the Times still plays a strong agenda-setting role, so its dumb story will doubtless lead to dumb follow-ups elsewhere and even dumber cable TV news pieces about the language our kids are hearing -- even though most kids are watching Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel and not seeing any of this crap in the first place. My head hurts just thinking about it.
I could go on and on, but the piece finally explains why it's such a waste of time by closing with a Massachusetts College professor noting, "Vulgar slang has a way of waxing and waning, where we become desensitized to a word’s earlier meanings,” he said. “I would bet most kids today couldn’t tell you what a douche bag is.”
No, but make them read this story and they'll figure it out pretty quick.
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Language on TV was not an issue for me until I kids. Then I really began to notice how often I would hear words and phrases that I wouldn't normally choose for them to hear. True, the bulk of their viewing happens on the kids' networks, where the language is benign (I assume it's benign, since I don't watch much with them--a little iCarly goes a looong way with me). But when our family would settle in to watch, say, According to Jim (and "settle" is the correct verb), I would find an inordinately high number of "damns," "hells," and "asses" for what was ostensibly a family comedy. So today when we watch Modern Family or Survivor or V together, language-wise, it's a roll of the dice.
Posted by: W | November 16, 2009 at 10:58 AM