Little Miss Potty Mouth

I read an article today about an episode of the ABC television series called Modern Family in which a young girl uses an expletive during a wedding.  As you can imagine, the whole idea of a toddler swearing on television created quite a stir.

It wasn’t because the word remains in the final copy that airs this evening, because it doesn’t.  The comment is not only bleeped but the girl’s mouth is also pixilated so that you can’t read her lips.  It also isn’t even that the girl is required to say the word because she isn’t.  What she actually says is ‘fudge’ at that delicate juncture in the show.

Regardless of the facts of the matter, there is an organization called the No Cussing Club that has raised a stink and wants ABC to pull the episode.  Their goal is an admirable one; to remove profanity from television.  And I agree that it makes it difficult for parents and caretakers of young children to monitor what they are exposed to when it is so prominent on the boob-tube.

As a Philosophy major I’ve had a different opinion on swear words in movies and television in the past: I just didn’t think about it.  I knew that my mother has always disapproved of certain words more so than others.  Whenever I heard the ones that she vehemently objected to, I could envision her reaction as clearly as if she was right beside me.  But my reaction button was not as sensitive as hers as my reasoning was less visceral.  And then I had my daughter.

One day I received a call from my daughter’s kindergarten teacher saying she had used profanity toward another child in her classroom.  Then the teacher repeated her words.  I nearly swallowed my gum.  They weren’t actual swear words but they were, nonetheless, offensive.  And although profanity didn’t faze me, I never use those types of words in my home and neither does my husband.  I was stunned, and somewhat amused. 

Imagine our shock when we realized she learned this phrase from watching a movie that was considered kid-oriented.  And yet, it didn’t stop her teacher from looking at us like we were trailer trash.  It was the most difficult school year to wade through after that regretful day.

So I felt the need to weigh-in on the controversy surrounding this show since I, myself, have been there with so many other mothers and fathers.  My opinion on ABC going ahead with the episode:  Good for them!

The episode is about dealing with the issue of a child that has uttered her first cuss word and how the parents — who in this episode just happen to be gay — decide to deal with it.  I have no doubt there will be many funny moments and that there will be some type of resolution to where they will, hopefully, find a way to curtail the potty mouth of their young daughter.  And to those who are up in arms over the subject matter of this television show, I have only to say this:  This is not a show for kids!

When you consider the subject matter of the entire series you can only shake your head and wonder why groups such as the No Cussing Club would even be concerned.  The issues they deal with on a weekly basis are an adults-only type of naughty comedy.  If a bleeped word with pixilation is the worst thing you find to complain about in this series then you haven’t been looking hard enough.  And the idea that we should censor more than we already have, curtailing freedom of speech, is another right I’m not willing to so easily infringe upon regardless of my parental status.  Instead, I have the opportunity to shut off the TV and pull out the old stand-by, a rousing game of Apples to Apples.  Because we still have control over the content on our TVs if we take the time to really pay attention.

Besides, when it comes down to it, as far as swear words are concerned, my opinion is that they are merely letters we’ve given sounds to, and in certain groupings have given meaning to.  It’s what we decide is in a word that makes it good or bad.  And if we take a look at it and say to our kids: this is a word that you will come across throughout your life and there will be people telling you it’s bad.  It’s best not to offend them with it, but it really has no power over you if you give it a better meaning and ignore what another person’s intent is in using it against you.  It helps to make your life just a little easier.

And it truly is intent more than the word that we find offensive.  In the instance of the young girl on Modern Family using this expletive, well, I can honestly tell you that ABC, as well as the shows writers, is not pretending that her intent in saying the word has any malice attached in the traditional use of the term.  I say this as honestly as I can say that when my five year old daughter called a boy in her class ‘penis breath’, she did not intend for it to be anything other than an expression of her frustration at him for tossing all of the markers into a drawer without their caps on.  But it’s only my opinion.