Oh, #@*...!!

Considers the views of psychologist Timothy Jay, the nation's top expert on dirty words. His contention that censorship of dirty words on television is outdated; Why psychology has avoided the topic of swearing when it is so clearly a major way of expressing emotion; Why words are censored in the media but not images.

By PT Staff, published on May 01, 1994

DIRTY WORDS

Something's troubling Timothy Jay, Ph.D., and it pretty much boils down to this: "How come," says the nation's top expert on dirty words, "on television you can show someone being decapitated or talk about a priest sodomizing young boys--but you can't use the word 'fart'?"

Jay doesn't find the taboo amusing. Because the censorship, which he believes is ludicrously outdated, extends to the realm of understanding behavior as well.

"Why has psychology avoided the topic of swearing when it is so clearly a major way of expressing emotion?" he asks rhetorically. His studies show that swearing accounts for 3 percent of all adult conversation on the job, 13 percent at leisure. And when other mental faculties decline with age, cursing holds fast. "All the textbooks of psychology give the impression that humans don't swear," says the professor of psychology at North Adams (Massachusetts) State College.

Jay contends that our ignorance is deterring us from solving some of America's major social problems.

Take sexual harassment, for example. "The law says something must be offensive to the average person.

"We know that what is appropriate depends on context and on the intent of the speaker. What words and thoughts are appropriate or inappropriate in which contexts? What language is so vile or so offensive it affects the way people work? Studies could be done to establish this."

The topic of remembered events, so often an issue in trials, is another biggie Jay would like to see tackled with some dirty words. "Lots of work has been done on memory, but there are no data on people's memory for obscenity. Just how accurate is people's memory for the kinds of remembered events that came up in the Clarence Thomas hearings? If one word is offensive, is its euphemism--and is it remembered as well?"

Jay points to a public struggling to get a grip on hate crimes, now on the rise: "What words used by, say, a Louis Farrakhan make him so offensive?"

And, he asks a public questioning what kids should or should not be exposed to in the media, why censor words but not images? "Why can't we talk about talk?" implores Jay.

Jay thinks he knows the answer. "The core of our fear of language is a fear of sex," and it is exemplified in the way Americans let kids learn about sex and about censored words--in the street.

What's more, says Jay, "when we say a word, we believe it will jinx someone. It is a primitive, supernatural fear." Truth is, we no longer use bad words to defame the church. Mostly we use them to express frustration--to cope, not curse.

ILLUSTRATION