Last September the music video for Cee Lo Green’s song “Fuck You” hit YouTube and became an overnight sensation. When it was first released I think that I watched the video about five times a day. There isn’t a lot of new music that I enjoy, but this song really had soul. Then I heard it on the radio. Well, something remotely similar to it anyway. Given the option between censored and uncensored music I would pick uncensored 100% of the time, but most of the time I can at least tolerate the censored version. “Forget You”, however, is not a song that I can tolerate. It has no soul. It has been chained. It is ugly. Listening to “Forget You” is like watching an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in which Fred Rogers does not wear a sweater. The message might be the same, but the presentation is awkward at best.
The change of the specific lyrics “fuck you” to “forget you” isn’t what ruins the song. I would argue that the former is more cathartic, but the latter is manageable. What ruins the song for me is the change from “ain’t that some shit” to “ain’t that some sh…” I never considered the song to be vulgar until I heard the censored version of this line. The unedited version still speaks to me but I can’t listen to the radio-friendly edits without some level of discomfort. I find bleeps and muffled sounds to be a completely absurd form of censorship. You still know what is intended but for whatever reason it can’t be explicitly stated. A not so friendly reminder that some words are inherently bad. Or at least they’re believed to be so.
I think that censorship like this really misses the point. I understand that we want to protect our children from the grotesque realities of the real world and all that, but isn’t it harmful to teach them that words have power? Is the world made to stop at the utterance of profanity? This is a very dangerous line of thought. After all, language is largely arbitrary.
I’ve gotten a lot of grief in the past for expressing this belief- that language is arbitrary. We all have access to the same information about what words mean. My counterpoint is that even with a uniformity of definition we don’t all have the same feelings about words. I believe that there does not exist any word that is completely without value in some context. Even words that that are not tolerated by the vast majority of people have their uses in artistic expression. I certainly can’t think of a word that I haven’t at one point found meaningful in a satirical context. Others find some words so obscene that there is no good reason for them to be uttered. And then there are some people that for a reason that they couldn’t possibly explain to another human being hate words that are completely ordinary by most. When I say language is arbitrary what I mean is that no matter how you arrange your message there will be some audience that will find a way to be offended by it. Any worthwhile message that is. Being offended is an active process. No matter how hard I try it’s really up to you whether or not you take offense. If you allow singular words to get under your skin then you’re doing yourself a savage disservice.
To harp on individual words ignores the intent of the author. It’s true that many obscenities are used with little to no thought by the speaker, but this is true of every word. Words aren’t vulgar. People are. The issue is never the word, it’s the context. Vulgarity isn’t a matter of how, it’s a matter of what and why. Vulgarity is yelling at somebody who doesn’t deserve it. Vulgarity is taking pride in vice. Vulgarity is disrespecting the downtrodden. Cursing “just because” is vulgar, but self-expression is not.
I understand the need to use discretion about using profanity. Don’t swear at school. Don’t swear at work. Don’t swear around grandma. But don’t swear at all? That’s taking things too far. When you disregard a message simply because of the words used to express it you stop caring about the actual quality of that message. Under the standard that language constitutes vulgarity it’s entirely possible that South Park is the most vulgar program in television history. If you’ve ever taken the opportunity to absorb the meaning of the show you’d realize that it has a very good message. South Park is essentially a sitcom about how nobody is perfect and none of us have any right to believe that we are better than anybody else because we all have flaws beyond our own self-perception. My mother hates the program because of the use of strong language. Personally I believe that she’s really missing out.
If you enjoy “Forget You” then more power to you. Good on you if you avoid profanity in your speech, but don’t pretend like cursing is a deadly sin. There is a lot of value to be gained from tolerating well-reasoned use of profanity and a lot of harm that can be done by alienating yourself from it. And seriously, “Fuck You” is a really good song.
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