Just the other night we viewed a video called "Mystery, Alaska" (a nice little movie about true grit and determination and manly competition) of which the story isn't relevant but the language was very blue, not atypical of Hollywood these days. There was one scene where a very young child (pre-schooler) says "f*** me" and his parents chortle happily as if to say "isn't that cute". This got me to thinking about the way profanity has changed in its general acceptability. I am of an age such that I never ever heard my parents swear, unless for a special occasion (e.g., hitting thumb with hammer). Things changed with the onset of the Vietnam War (a lot of things did) -- it was the end of innocence for the baby-boomer generation. Profanity became common in moments of anger, frustration and passion (we saw it all the time in movies). Now, with this latest generation, it has gone another step beyond; it has become almost a part of everyday (informal) speech. We hear it every night on the tube (I'm sure we'll hear the last couple of exceptions any Monday night now on "WWF RAW is WAR -- as a matter of fact I understand the f-word snuck past the bleeper last night). But our parents and, to a lesser extent, my generation continue to react very negatively to profanity, because to us it still represents passionate emotions which we feel should remain private. So it probably is a lot bigger issue here in the US; it's a 'generational thing'.
