Women, the Workplace & Profanity

Three random nouns, right? Apparently not. As I've mentioned before in this blog, I rather enjoy profanity and I fully believe it has a place in our culture, even if organizations like the Parents Television Council does not. Because of that fondness, I occasionally search for recent news about cursing. A story from Yahoo seems to have that business world buzzing about profanity in the workplace. And not just any profanity, but unladylike maledictions!

It all started after Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock called CEO Carol Bartz earlier this month on her cell phone to tell her that her services were no longer needed. In an interview shortly afterwards, she called the board members that fired her a bunch of "doofuses" who "f----- me over." Since her firing, Bartz's penchant for profane language throughout her career has become recurring themes in discussions about her and whether or not cursing is proper in the workplace.

Profanity in the workplace! What a great idea for a blog post! So I searched for just that, and wouldn't you know it, the first five news titles that popped up in Google’s results were questioning or commenting about women using salty language in the workplace. The stories ranged from simply asking the public's opinion through a poll to an essay about how "Cursing in the Workplace is a Lose-Lose Strategy for Women."

The article does make an interesting point that basically women are natural communicators who shouldn't resort to blue language to get their points across. By singling out women and not addressing the issue of men swearing in the workplace, I’m left with the belief that the author lets males off the hook when they fail to mind their “French” in the office. The writer also implies that using profanity calls a person's judgment into question. Since the article is aimed at women in the workplace, does this imply that a man's credibility isn't ruined by profanity but a woman's is?

Women, swearing and the workplace sheds some light on this, though I don’t like the observation’s pallor:

“It stands out because it's not expected," said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and author of "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation."

"We always take notice of what's unexpected and women are still not expected to curse, so when they do, it's noticed more."

Further:

"If women talk in ways expected of them or project a feminine demeanor, it's seen as weak. But if they talk in ways associated with men or bosses, then they're seen as too aggressive," she said. "Whatever they do violates one or the other expectation, either you're not talking as you should as a woman or as boss."

Naturally, I don't like this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Either profanity isn't acceptable for anyone to use in the workplace or it is okay for everyone. It should really depend on the verbal standards of the unique office culture and the individual's choice whether or not to curse.

I've worked in professional offices where profanity was a part of everyday conversation and others where I thought I might by swallowed by the flames of hell dare I say the word "damn." I learned to adjust my vocabulary thusly; it should be easy enough for others to do it. But if there are mixed messages as to which gender can acceptably use such words and which can't, there may problems far bigger than profanity plaguing that particular workplace.

What is your view on swearing at work?

"Oh, the Profanity!"

The Parents Television Council is sounding the alarm on an increase in profanity on television. In a report aptly named "Habitat for Profanity," the watchdog group alleges that foul language on network TV has increased 69% from five years ago. Are they kidding, is that the real number?! Not 68% or 70%?

The PTC spent the first two weeks of the fall TV season counting dirty words in prime time. The group monitored ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, and the WB in 2005; the Big Four plus the CW in 2010. 124 hours of programming from 2005 was compared to 128 hours in 2010.

The Parents Television Council monitored 18 terms it considers indecent. According to federal law, content can be considered indecent if it describes or depicts “sexual or excretory organs or activities… [and] the broadcast must be patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” A full list of the terms they encountered and how often they were repeated can be found here.

PTC reports that the most popular curse word on TV was a bleeped F-word. The group found 156 instances of it, compared to just once in 2005. The word "hell" is next with 119 instances. The least used profane words were "douche" and "balls," each tied at one.

The group said the biggest increase of foul language occurred during the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. time slots. During the 8:00 pm "family hour", instances of the f-word increased from 10 in 2005 to 111 in 2010. Use of the s-word during this hour increased from 11 instances in 2005 to 42 in 2010.

Why such a drastic increase? It has been attributed to a court ruling against profanity censures by the Federal Communications Commission. As Television Broadcast explains:

The Second Circuit ruled in July that the FCC’s penalties for fleeting expletives were “unconstitutionally vague.” The case evolved out of a 2004 FCC indecency dragnet resulting in $4.5 million in fines. Fox was cited for expletives uttered during live awards telecasts in 2002 and 2003, though a similar previous occurrence was given a pass. Fox challenged the ruling. The Supreme Court agreed that the FCC's fleeting expletive rules were vague and tossed a First Amendment challenge back to the lower court.

In response, the networks instituted tape delays to bleep fleeting expletives or cut away from indecent material during live shows. That nixes most of the PTC's complaints. However, the group is increasingly opposed to scripted programming such as Fox’s “Family Guy,” the title of CBS’s “$#*! My Dad Says,” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Personally, I'm not opposed to profanity or "offensive content," I just find this subject to be particularly interesting as an avid fan of classic film and television. Every fart, boob, and penis joke reminds me of just how far censorship on American television has come since shows first began broadcasting in the 1940s and 1950s. Back then, Lucille Ball wasn't allowed to say she was "pregnant" on "I Love Lucy," she had to use the word "expecting." The first Tweety Bird, a featherless pink baby bird, was considered to be too naked and to satisfy the censors the animator was forced to add the distinctive yellow colored feathers we know him by today. Oh my, how times have changed!

Historically, edgy shows that push the envelope like those listed above have been popular with audiences. The predecessors of today's show's owe some of their freedom to groundbreaking sitcoms such as "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "Three's Company," "Married... with Children," and "Roseanne." Is it a coincidence that some of the biggest sitcom hits on television right now are also some of the most "profane"?

Cursing to Ease the Pain

As stated in the heading, this blog has an emphasis on language. And it really doesn't specify much beyond that. It could be any language: English, French, German... It could be the language of poetry, the law, or money. Language encompasses many things.

This time I'll talk about blue language, purple prose, sailor talk - otherwise known as curses, profanity, or swearing. And because I am a fan of cuss words, this probably won't be the last time I touch on them in this blog.

We all know what the seven dirty words are (even so, read the link for a brief look at George Carlin, profanity, and the FCC). But why do we say them? And why is it sometimes so hard to stop ourselves from saying them? This article and study analysis published by Scientific American has some of the answer to this question: Psychologists have found that swearing may serve an important function in relieving pain.

According to the article, the study measured how long college students could keep their hands immersed in cold water. During the exercise, they could repeat an expletive of their choice or a neutral word. The abstract of the study says "Swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing." When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and they were able to endure the cold on average about 40 seconds longer.

Although cursing is notoriously decried in the public debate, researchers are now beginning to question the idea that the phenomenon is all bad. "Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it," says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, who led the study. And indeed, the findings point to one possible benefit: "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear," he adds.

An excellent quote from the Scientific American article. But my favorite is from Psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard University, who compares the pain/swearing situation to what happens in the brain of a cat that somebody accidentally sat on:

"I suspect that swearing taps into a defensive reflex in which an animal that is suddenly injured or confined erupts in a furious struggle, accompanied by an angry vocalization, to startle and intimidate an attacker," he says.

Earlier studies have shown that unlike normal language, which relies on the outer few millimeters in the left hemisphere of the brain, expletives reside in and activate ancient evolutionarily structures buried deep inside the right half. Basically, there are indications that swearing could be one of the oldest forms of language. Ancient man in the Stone Age was likely screaming expletives when he stubbed his toe thousands of years ago.

Timothy Jay, a psychologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has studied our use of profanities for the past 35 years, says cursing is more than just aggression:

"It allows us to vent or express anger, joy, surprise, happiness," he remarks. "It's like the horn on your car, you can do a lot of things with that, it's built into you."

A horn on our car? Alright.

But even as this study seems to encourage some four-letter words when the need arises, the article does caution against over-use. Like many words, they start to lose their potency when they are repeated too often. Swear too much, and they lose their emotional impact along with their pain-relieving properties.